Fight or flight: Ukrainians forced to make hard choices as war unfolds

UN estimates 100,000 already displaced by the fighting after Russia continues incursion

A Ukrainian soldier walks past the shell of a burnt military vehicle, on a street in Kiev. AP

A screengrab from CCTV footage shows a missile hitting a residential building in Kiev. Reuters

A man inspects a broken window, after shelling carried out by Russian troops in the Ukrainian capital. Reuters

Ukrainian soldiers take positions outside a military centre as two cars burn on a street in Kiev. AP

Medical specialists transport a woman, who was wounded in the shelling of an apartment building, to an ambulance, as her husband looks on. Reuters

A woman outside her apartment building after it was damaged by a rocket, in Kiev. AP

A Ukrainian police officer detains a driver on a street in Kiev. AP

A soldier's helmet with a bullet hole on a street in the Ukrainian capital. AP

Ukrainian soldiers walk by a damaged vehicle, at the site of fighting with Russian troops, in Kiev. Reuters

Ukrainian policemen move parrots to safety after a high-rise apartment block was damaged by shelling in Kiev. EPA

A screengrab from a video shows rescue workers carrying a person at the site of a damaged multi-storey residential building, south-west of the Ukrainian capital. Reuters

A building damaged by shelling carried out by Russian troops in Kiev. EPA

Helga Tarasova comforts her daughter Kira Shapovalova as they wait in an underground shelter during a bombing alert in Kiev. AFP

A man walks past a building damaged by a rocket attack in the Ukrainian capital. AP

Emergency services workers near an apartment building damaged by shelling in Kiev. Reuters

Ukrainian soldiers collect unexploded shells in the capital. AFP

An apartment building damaged by shelling in Kiev. Reuters

Debris of a burnt military truck on a street in Kiev. AP

Natali Sevriukova stands next to her home after a rocket attack in Kiev, Ukraine. AP

People on foot and in cars move to cross from Ukraine to Poland at the Korczowa-Krakovets border crossing following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP

Servicemen from the Ukrainian National Guard in central Kiev. Reuters

Ukrainian soldiers in downtown Kiev after Russian troops reached the outskirts of the capital. AP Photo

Police officers detain demonstrators in St. Petersburg, Russia. Hundreds of people gathered in Moscow and St. Petersburg on Thursday, protesting against Russia's attack on Ukraine. Similar protests took place in other Russian cities, and activists were also arrested. AP Photo

Hungarian troops in Vasarosnameny, close to the border with Ukraine, prepare to help refugees. AP Photo

Wrecked Russian army rocket launchers in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Reuters

The aftermath of a rocket attack in Kiev. AP Photo

A US Air Force jet refuels over Poland. Reuters

Devastation after shelling in Ukraine's Luhansk enclave. Reuters

The Royal Welsh Battlegroup from the UK makes its way to Estonia. Reuters

Firefighters tackle a blaze in a building in Kiev. AFP

The wreckage of an unidentified aircraft in a residential area in Kiev. Reuters

Smoke rises near the Ukrainian Defence Ministry in Kiev. Reuters

Russian military helicopters fly over the Ukrainian capital. AP

An anxious wait to board a train to leave Kiev as the attack loomed. AP Photo

Ukrainian servicemen on tanks in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine. AP Photo

Ukraine troops said this destroyed armoured vehicle outside Kharkiv belonged to the Russian army. Reuters

Rescuers at the crash site after a Ukraine armed forces Antonov aircraft was shot down in Kiev, according to the Ukrainian authorities. Reuters

Ukrainian tanks that aim to repel an attack by the Russian military in the Luhansk enclave of Ukraine. AFP

A Ukrainian State Border Guard Service base is ablaze after heavy shelling near Kiev. Reuters

Damaged radar at a Ukrainian military plant outside Mariupol. Officials in Kiev say Russian troops have rolled into the country from the north, east and south. AP Photo

Firefighters attend a blaze after bombing in the eastern Ukrainian town of Chuguiv, as Russian armed forces appeared to be bombarding Ukraine from several directions. AFP

A traffic jam in Kiev, with many Ukrainians leaving their capital after Russian troops entered. EPA

The Border Service of Ukraine released CCTV footage purporting to show Russian military vehicles passing a checkpoint to drive into Crimea. AP

A man picks up fragments of military materiel on the street after an apparent Russian strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP

Workers load the debris of a rocket on to a lorry in the aftermath of Russian shelling in Kiev. AP

Emergency staff treat an injured man after bombing in Chuguiv. AFP

An American woman in distress after crossing the border to flee the violence in Ukraine, in Medyka, Poland. Reuters

People take shelter in a Kiev subway station, after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised a military operation in eastern Ukraine. Reuters

People in a rush near Kiev-Pasazhyrskyi railway station in the Ukrainian capital. AFP

A Flightradar24.com screengrab shows a dearth of civilian aircraft in Ukrainian airspace after the Russian invasion. AP

The aftermath of bombing in Chuguiv. AFP

A Ukrainian rocket launcher vehicle prepares for action. Reuters

Cars are driven across a field to leave the city of Kharkiv. Reuters

People chant, carry placards and wave Ukrainian flags as they gather in Sydney, to demonstrate against Russian attacks on its neighbour. AP

People with many of their belongings packed take shelter in a Metro station in Kiev. AFP

Emergency services at the scene of an explosion at a military unit building in Kiev. EPA

A Kiev resident sweeps up debris after Russian shelling. AP

The first 40 soldiers of the 173rd US Army Airborne Brigade step off a military plane in Latvia. EPA

More damage from shelling in Kiev. AP

People wait at a bus station to travel to western parts of Ukraine, after violence in the east. Reuters

A woman carries her cats in a quest for a safe haven. AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy holds an urgent government meeting in Kiev to discuss the next step. AFP

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell give a joint statement in Brussels, updating the press about the situation in Ukraine. EPA

People survey the damage after bombing in Chuguiv. AFP

A building on fire in Chuguiv. AFP

Live updates: follow the latest news on Russia-Ukraine

The first blast from a Russian ballistic missile shook Katya Niporka awake in her Kiev apartment a little after 5am on Thursday morning. The second sent her rushing for her phone.

“I heard another explosion and I grabbed my phone, opened messenger and saw people saying [that] in Kharkiv and Nikolaiev it was the same — they had explosions,” she said.

Despite weeks of diplomacy, threats of sanctions and political brinkmanship, Russian President Vladimir Putin had declared war on Ukraine, launching a series of co-ordinated attacks on cities and towns across the country.

As Russian troops advance on major cities, including the capital Kiev, Ukrainians are facing the excruciating question of whether to stay in their homes or flee elsewhere in the country — or even abroad.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city which sits about 30 kilometres from the Russian border, Mila, 29, packed a small suitcase and made a mad dash to the train station on Thursday morning, trying to board a train west after the city was hit with Russian artillery fire.

The platforms were crowded with people trying desperately to board the few trains leaving the station.

“I have family in the centre of the country,” she said speaking from an overflowing train. “I'm planning to stay with them until things calm down, but we don't know how long that will be.”

Many Ukrainians thought that if an incursion happened at all, it would come in the south-east of the country, which has for the past eight years been embroiled in conflict. Earlier in the week, Mr Putin and the Russian State Duma formally recognised two breakaway regions as independent republics.

“We had been expecting them to invade further into Donetsk or Luhansk, not in Kharkiv. No one was ready for this,” she said.

For many in those regions, however, shelling is nothing new.

Ludmila Ivanovna, 56, of Donetsk, went to work on Thursday morning as usual, though she was one of only a handful who did. She had already been displaced from her home by fighting in 2015 and said she was not keen to move again.

“I'm nearing retirement, my kids live abroad — where would I go?” she asked.

Abroad is precisely where Natasha and her husband, Andrey, intended to go when they packed their suitcases and piled into their small car with their two young children early on Friday morning.

The drive to the Polish border from Kiev normally takes seven or eight hours with light traffic, but after six hours on the road, they'd barely made it a third of the way.

“The roads are awful, traffic is at a standstill and there are accidents everywhere,” Natasha said.

Cars that had run out of gas were abandoned in the roadway; some people were walking along the motorway in the direction of the border.

They hoped to make it to her husband's home town in the far west of the country by nightfall, then assess their chances at the border in the morning.

Rumours that all men of fighting age were being pulled from cars and buses at crossings have them worried.

Ms Niporka, who is still in her apartment in Kiev, said she did not plan to leave.

“Why would I leave? My friends and family are here and it's safer than being outside in a traffic jam.”

But aside from it being safer, she believes in Ukraine's fighting spirit and that somehow, against all odds, they will prevail in this crisis.

“Life is unjust, but maybe this is our mission. I love my country and when something happens, we can unite and we can work together. We can overcome any problem.”