I'm Arthur Snell. A major war is taking place on the European continent with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

We'll be releasing a series of special episodes to help you understand the background to this crisis as it unfolds.

This is Doomsday Watch.

In late January, we brought you an emergency episode on the evolving crisis between Russia and Ukraine.

There was uncertainty about whether Vladimir Putin's Russia could really be crazy enough to invade a country the size of France with an experienced military.

One month on, that debate is over.

We wanted to get back in touch with Romeo Cockriatsky, host of the Ukraine without the hype podcast.

When we last spoke to Romeo, he was in his hometown of Kiev. He's now with his family in Western Ukraine, one of hundreds of thousands displaced by the conflict.

We'll also hear from British-based Ukrainian Artyom Lis, whose native city of Kharkiv is under Russian bombardment as we record this.

Okay. We're joined from Ukraine by Romeo Cockriatsky.

Good morning, Arthur, thanks for having me again.

Romeo, the last time we spoke, you were in Kiev. We were talking about whether or not Russia might be stupid enough to invade your country.

They've now done that. Can you talk us through what's happened to you in that period of the last two weeks?

Sure. Well, if you can recall from our previous conversations, Arthur, I'm not going to say I told you so, but this was definitely something I saw coming.

And the invasion was less of a surprise to me than perhaps two others.

So I was able to send my wife to my hometown of Vignitsa. It's a city about 300 kilometers southwest of Kiev about a week before the actual full-scale invasion commenced.

And I myself started moving to Vignitsa about two days after zero day.

Once it was clear that the invading Russian forces may try to swing around and head through the suburb in Kiev that I lived.

Normally, it's about a three and a half hour drive. In this case, it took me about 12 hours and three forms of transport.

But eventually, I was able to make it here. And it's about as safe as you can get in the country at the moment.

It's good to hear that you're in what is a relatively safe place.

Tell us about what you understand to be the situation now in Kiev. So we're talking on the morning of March 1st.

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