THE DOG WHO SAVED US

Viktoriia Lahodynska, 32, and her family couldn't leave Betty behind

- ASHLEIGH PAGE, LOUISE BATY

Feeling groggy, I opened my eyes as my phone buzzed on the bedside table. It was 6am on 24 February 2022 and, holding the phone to my ear, I heard my sister’s panicked voice.

‘War has started; you must leave Kyiv,’ she wept, and I jolted awake, wondering why she was talking like this.

We were an ordinary family living in the centre of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital city. Every morning, I’d make breakfast for my son Bohdan, then nine, and daughter Elizabeth, seven, before we headed off on the school run and then I’d go to my teaching job. In my spare time, I ran my own business as a nutritionist.

With my husband working away as an interpreter, it was a hectic but happy life, and it was inconceivable that something as earth-shattering as war could disrupt it. But checking the news, my heart sank when I saw that Russia had invaded Ukraine. With Kyiv a target, we were in terrible danger.

RUSH TO THE BASEMENT

I couldn’t reach my husband but my mum was staying with us. ‘There’s no point trying to leave the city right now,’ I told her, having seen a news report about all routes out of Kyiv being gridlocked and unsafe. The official government advice was to remain indoors so we hurried to the basement of our apartment building.

Thankfully, there was a communal bathroom and kitchen. For several days, we stayed there alongside our neighbours, sleeping on mattresses.

The children trembled as bombs fell a few streets away. I wrapped my arms around them and promised to protect them. Deep down, I knew it was a promise I couldn’t necessarily keep.