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It's 1096 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

And tomorrow, February the 24th, marks the third anniversary of when this began.

The invasion, the attack that Russia promised would never happen has now started.

And the Ukraine...

This is a European country and it's at war.

And it is war.

I've been working for the BBC covering Russia for 20 years and today is unquestionably the darkest day of me doing this job.

International norms are being shattered, the architecture of all our lives and a siren to remind you that war has come to Kiev in a European capital.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians, civilians and soldiers, dead. Many more wounded. Hundreds of thousands

of Russian soldiers dead. During the course of our reporting, we've spoken to many Ukrainians who've told us how their lives have been turned upside down.

We are Ukrainians. It's not Vladimir Putin who needs us. Stop this war immediately. You are invading my country, and we are strong.

I said that while are you coming back?

You are 61 years old.

He says, I'm coming back to defend Kiev.

I said that you hardly walk.

And he told me something that again made me cry.

He said, well, I can crawl.

I think they don't know.

Life goes on and, course some wounds never heal.

I understand that, but you have to take one step at a time.

So I decided to have a child here in Kiev.

...