I went to war and came back WITH A DOG

As Danielle Sheridan reported from Ukraine, she fell in love with one of its forgotten victims - and decided to bring her home

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Before I left Islington for Ukraine, I could have never imagined the experience. The stories of destruction I found are so devastating that I struggle to comprehend how this is happening in the 21st century. Genocide. War crimes. Invasion. Yet, when entering Ukraine back in February, this is exactly what I found.

To get there, I first flew with photographer Paul Grover to the Polish capital, Warsaw, before a nine-hour drive to the border. Then, two hours on to Lviv, a city in the west where thousands of displaced citizens were massed. The threat of missile strikes was constant, coupled with the pressure of getting to our hotel before the curfew. Lviv had been considered the safest place in Ukraine, but the day before we arrived, Russia had fired a missile on the city. It showed how unpredictable this war is and I felt guilt towards my friends and family who were nervously WhatsApping me for reassurance.

Once in Lviv, apart from the sound of sirens, it was hard to believe Ukraine was at war. People hung out in coffee shops and sold tulips on the side of roads. Yet it was inside the refugee centres – the churches offering shelter for the homeless and the crowded train stations where desperate civilians waited – that the true picture emerged.

At an arts centre transformed into a refugee hub providing warm meals, hot drinks and nappies was Anna. The 32-year-old had been excited about her first pregnancy but when the shelling started in the Kherson region, where she lived with her husband, they fled. She refused to let herself cry because it stopped her breasts producing the milk she needed for her newborn. I found myself thinking of one of my sisters; how lucky she was to have had her first pregnancy safely at home, with all the family around her.