'It's all very scary!' From Forton to the front line fear for life in Ukraine battlefield

A travel company operator who grew up in Lancashire has described what life is like for him in Ukraine, 12 years after he moved there and more than three years after Russia began its attacks.

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Pete Griffin runs In Lviv Tours, based in the fifth-largest city in Ukraine, around 70 kilometres from the border with Poland.

It's more than 500 km from the capital, Kyiv, and although relatively peaceful compared to other parts of the country, life there for Pete has not, over the three years of the war, been without its reminders that the conflict is still ongoing.

"While missile and drone strikes are a daily occurrence in Kyiv, in Odessa in our south, and hourly in our east, in Kharkiv, our second biggest city, for example, September 4, 2024, was the last time we were hit by missiles and drones," said Pete.

"We do get air alarms but they sound when a MIG-31K simply takes off from west russia - it's cautionary, not a serious warning.

"September 4, 2024 was a very long night, with three big explosions a few miles north of here near the railway station, with several homes destroyed and sleeping people killed - no military targets."