The war between Russia and Ukraine has dragged on for a year now.

It started when Russia invaded its neighbor, February 24, 2022.

This was after President Putin declared a special military operation,

seeking the, quote, demilitarization and de-nazification of Ukraine.

Hana Palamarenko was in her flat in her hometown of Nipro, Ukraine, that morning.

She had gotten up early and was scrolling through her phone.

And I started checking the chats, like, friend chats, family chats,

where people started texting about that the war has started.

Honestly, I, it's not like I didn't believe, but it was something surreal for me.

I thought like it's some exaggeration.

It can't happen for real.

And then I think it was about 6 a.m. maybe even earlier.

When I heard the first explosion, I think at that time the missile

hit the airport in Nipro.

Well, so it's quite far, but I could hear the sound.

At the time, Hana was an English teacher doing online classes for kids.

Her first class at the day was set to begin.

She didn't know what to do, so she stuck to her day's schedule.

So I turned on Zoom and I texted all my students like,

if you want to join the class, I will be there.

No one joined the class that day.

None of them.

...