I’m in Kyiv and awake at the darkest hour – as Putin’s bombs rain down | Nataliya Gumenyuk

I could not accept the idea of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but here I am as the airstrikes begin and Russia invades us

A famous Russian independent journalist called me for a quote after Russia launched airstrikes all over Ukraine. We have never met but she started begging for forgiveness for what her country is doing and may do to mine. Both of us are experienced reporters and used to covering hard stories, conflicts. We talked, and we cried.

So it begins. 5am. Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa, and all along the 2,000km-long Russian-Ukrainian border.

Nataliya Gumenyuk is a Ukrainian journalist specialising in foreign affairs and conflict reporting and author of Lost Island: Tales from the Occupied Crimea