Over a week on from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv's central train station is still crowded with people desperate to flee the capital.
Mothers clutch their children as startled dogs begin to bark and people begin to panic once they realise the trains are too full.
Kyiv resident Anastasia Kolomiyet wasn't able to get on the train to Lviv, a Western city near the Polish border. There was no space.
But she says she will try again; she will wait in the station until the last train of the day if she has to.
After Lviv she plans to leave Ukraine. She doesn't know when she will be back. It took her some time to take the decision to leave.
"I thought that (this war) would last fewer days. Nobody believed it. Nobody believed that we would have to flee" Kolomiyet says.
Another woman, Ksenia, also had hoped the war would end sooner and that the negotiations would be successful. The news Thursday that a fire broke out at one of Ukraine's largest nuclear reactors, due to Russian shelling, forced her decision.
"Why did I leave today? Because it's terrifying. Now there is a threat of a nuclear explosion. Troops are approaching Kyiv, that's why there is a crowd like this. People just want to live."
Ksenia is also heading westwards along with her parents. They plan to get as close to the border as possible. She cries as she raises a brave fist to the sky. "I hope things will get better soon," she says.
Subscribe to the Evening Standard on YouTube: [ Ссылка ]
