Inside East Ukraine War Zone surrounded by bombing.

Across there, the bottom of that building there, that shop bombed yesterday. We will be within pretty close range of Russian artillery, and if they want, they can strike us at the moment's notice, really. So, this is actually an Adidas shop, so there's still shoes in here. Hello, how are you? Hi, I'm fine. This is my house, and this is my cat, and my workstation. Is this where you sleep? Yes, this is my sleep. Your bed? Yes, this is my bedroom. Russian forces shoot rockets. Don't go. Don't go that way? Yes. This video series is my personal account of traveling within Ukraine during the war, including going to the Far East to the front line. Nothing more, nothing less. Vladimir Putin has launched a major military operation against... Today, this building was bombed. The sounds you can hear behind us is Russian artillery hitting the city. Just wanted to destroy the civilization. This is my house. This is your house. So, what you're saying is this war is more scary than World War II? Every man will fight. Bits of missile. Explosive smell. This is the Russian world. Destruction everywhere. When they go outside, they feel like they're playing lottery with their life. Unexploded missile here. Destroyed buildings everywhere. The air raid sirens going off in the background. This one's completely burnt out. Probably one of the most dangerous cities in the world at the moment. Let's see how this goes. It's really quite hard for me to convey how many bullet holes are here. Now, we've been told to stay right here because they expect that a Russian counter-artillery... Welcome back to Kharkiv. You can see behind me, this building was bombed less than 24 hours ago. Yesterday afternoon, this building was struck. Today, we are heading to recently liberated villages. Villages that have been occupied by Russians until very recently. They've been liberated by the Ukrainian military. So, we're going to go there, try and meet some people and hear what it was like under the Russian occupation. It's quite insane. You can see here, across there, the bottom of that building there, that shop bombed yesterday. There's a park, a theme park just over there, also bombed. And this morning, we woke up to heavy bombardment as well. You can just hear in the distance, bombings after bombings for an hour straight. It's stopped now, but you never know when it can come. So, we're going to jump in the car now, drive. Not sure if we're going to be able to get access, but we're going to try. This road here this morning, there were heavy military convoys down here. Three huge military vehicles coming down here, heading towards that direction. There are still quite a few residents around. A lot of them are living underground. Some of them are living in their houses. It really just depends. But about half the city is currently evacuated, have fled because of the bombing. So, yeah, the streets are very quiet. Not many people around at all. It's kind of like a ghost town in areas. So, unfortunately, the first liberated town we tried to get to, we hit a roadblock and the military turned us back. They said it wasn't possible to go. Pretty crazy driving along the roads. Lots of blown out cars and things, and some of them are quite fresh, our driver was saying. Was that a bombing just then? Yeah, and about the last week or so, the Ukrainian army have made real strides in pushing the Russians out of towns in Kharkov that they occupied and in a number of different directions. But it seems to be up to the individual military unit where they are, if they want to let you through or not. So, this one said no, we're going to try in another direction and see if they say yes. Okay, let's go. Hello, guys. Hey, how are you? How are you doing? Are things getting worse or better for you? Many houses broken. Russian forces shoot rockets. Don't go. Don't go that way? Yes. And how's your house? One shot. Your house got hit? Yes. Are you going to stay here or are you going to leave? We're leaving. You're never... 24 February, we're here. You've never left? Never left. Will you go or you always stay? Always stay. No matter what happens? No place to go. We'll leave here. Good luck. What's your name? Sergey. Nice to meet you guys. The shelling seems to have picked up in the last like 10 minutes, eh? Yeah, more or less. Maybe it's just where we are or maybe this particular area just comes under a lot of bombardment. But yeah, we basically just hear it all around us. So, we've just met a nice man here on the road and you said you were recently like really close to a shelling? No. A car was just driving down the road and the driver was unlucky. It hit the car in motion. My friend and I were walking very close to it. We fell to the ground. The moment we hit the ground, the rockets started to hit. About five rockets hit the ground next to us. The closest one was about 10-15 meters away. The closest one hit, we lay down for a bit and the second one was 15-20 meters from us. The third one, we found one crater about 30 meters from us but we didn't find the other two. They were behind a fence. So, what's happening here? They come, we give it to those who are here. Many have gone abroad or to safer places in Ukraine. So, they receive the pensions where they are. Here, we give out pensions to those who have stayed. So, we've been driving through these completely deserted and abandoned villages. The only people you see are soldiers. The soldiers are equipped with pretty heavy weaponry. We've seen them with rocket launchers, with heavy machine guns. So, this is clearly somewhere where fighting has been going on very, very recently. So, we're going to one of the villages that was very, very recently liberated. It was liberated in the last couple of days. There are no Russian troops now. They've been kicked well out of lines but we will be within pretty close range of Russian artillery and if they want, they can strike us at the moment's notice, really. Okay, so we've arrived in the outskirts of this village here and right in the center is completely destroyed but we are blocked by the military. We can't quite get in but this is exactly where the Russians got to, pretty much. Any further was all occupied by Russians but there's some locals on the street. We're going to meet them, ask them a few questions. This lady up here even had a bombing in her backyard yesterday. So, this is still very much on the front line. We hear some bombings and things every so often. The roads to get here, so many roadblocks. You're kind of going on these back streets. Lots of military checkpoints, getting our passports and credentials checked and everything by military multiple times. Okay, so we're here with my driver, Sergey, and local resident, Anya. Anya. Okay. And did you say that a shell landed in your backyard yesterday? And there is my house. This one's the house? Yes. And so yesterday, you were inside the house when the shell landed? And would you mind just describing, like, the feeling and the noise and everything? Of course. She was very scared at this moment. It's like a dizzy head. I haven't slept that night after this. She has a sister, a sick sister. She's not moving. She cannot move. In this village? In this house? Is it possible to see where the shell landed in the backyard? This is this hole, but this is not a big, you know. This is just a... So, Anya's just showing us her freshly planted potatoes that she had to redo because of the bombing. So, what's quite interesting here, Tom, is that people are still living their lives, right? They're still, like, maintaining their land, even though there's literally bombs landing, like, right next to them, like yesterday, and probably today or the next day, who knows? Yeah, I mean, one of the women was complaining. She was like, yeah, a rocket landed in my backyard, and it blew up all my potatoes that I've been planting for the last few days. Don't worry, I've replanted them all. And then she showed us that she's been replanting them. She took us into her backyard. It's like, look, they're all ready, but it'll take a bit longer. It's just very surreal because they say that, you know, this is one of the last unoccupied parts in this sort of region, even though the Ukrainian troops have been pushing further back, but people are just very calm and relaxed and carrying on their lives, like, almost nothing is happening. Okay, so, Natalie, Anya came out after we visited her house, right? And she gave us some lovely flowers. She did. She gave me some beautiful daffodils, fresh... I think they're cut fresh from her garden. And I got a beautiful chocolate from the gentleman. Thank you very much. I want to say... You know what I want? I want peace. I want them to shake hands. We are not enemies. We are Slavs. No one ever knew that something like this would happen. We are not enemies. We are the same people. No one expected that the Russians would attack Ukrainians. We are the same people. Belarusians, Russians, Ukrainians, same people, Slavs. Why did the government do it? Who knows? I want it all to end soon. I want peace. Russians. So, the Russians, this video, from this side. Yeah. Go loose. So, we've come back into the city center of Kharkiv here. And you just see so much destruction of these beautiful historical buildings. So much damage around the city. It's going to be such a big job to clean all this up. But what is beautiful is that, you know, there's been people coming to do fresh road markings with the paint. People are doing the gardens and things, and cleaning the streets. So, I think it's really beautiful because keep in mind the city is still being bombed. There were strikes yesterday, and the next day people come out and clean. And, you know, the supermarkets are running. We just went to a nice restaurant and had some lunch, a nice modern restaurant. Just look at this building. A beautiful historical building here, just torn to shreds. So, this is actually an Adidas shop. So, there's still shoes in here, and you can see the mannequins. It's flooded and things, but you can see it's just... See the adidas.ua and the coat hangers. There are still some shoes over there. Here's the computers, the cash, where you bring your goods and buy things. It's been amazing to see Kharkiv because although I have traveled lots of Ukraine in the past, before this invasion, I'd never been to this part of Ukraine. And I'm pleasantly surprised. Obviously, I'm not seeing everything. But, you know, there's lots of nice modern parks and things, and things for families to do, and the streets are really nicely decorated. And obviously, they've got all the modern shops and beautiful kind of modern cafes and restaurants and things. And it's just so sad to see it torn apart. But I know how strong the people are here, and they'll bring it back to its former glory, if not stronger, because it's going to have such a beautiful story of resilience and strength. So, we've come into another metro station. And if you didn't see the other video I did here in Kharkiv, people have set up shelter. The lady we just walked past is cooking pasta down here. So, people are living here because of fear of the bombing above in the city. And people actually live inside the carriages. Hello. Hello, how are you? I'm fine. This is my house. This is your house? Yeah, this is my house. What was your name, sorry? My name Vlad. Vlad, Nick. Nice to meet you. This is my house, and this is my cat and my workstation. How long have you been living here for? 24th of February. Oh, you came as soon as the war started. Wow, so a couple of months now. 24th of February, this is my house. Where did you used to live? What part of the city before? A new house. In a new house? In a new house. Is your house okay or is it broken? Yes, my house is okay, but it destroyed my school, destroyed my little school. How long do you think that you will stay here for? I will stay here until I need help. Okay, so you just stay here and help everybody. Yeah, I'm a volunteer now. Beautiful. Is there Wi-Fi? Bad Wi-Fi. I don't see a good Internet connection. You have a modem here? Uh-huh. This is my friend. I help my friend in the military. This is Azov. Okay. This is military Azov and this is my mother and this is my friend's family friend. Did you expect before the 24th of February that this could ever happen? No, no, no. Never? No, never. Crazy. This is very crazy. It's very crazy. My friend and... Very bad. I don't like war. I don't like conflict. Anything else that you would like to say to the world? Okay, I want to tell the world that Putin is the devil. He belongs to immediate destruction. Otherwise, the whole world would be at war for a very long time. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. And, you know, I know... Your cat. Yes, this is my cat. Cat, my cat. What's your cat's name? Dusha. Dusha Dulcinea. Dulcinea. Yes, and my cat, cat. Cat for name cat. Okay, another cat. Yeah. Is this where you sleep? Yes, this is my sleep. Your bed? Yes, this is my bedroom. So, this is your mother's bedroom? Yes, this is my mother's bedroom. And is this your family over here? No, this is friends. Friends? Yes, this is friends. And is it nice to have your friends and family close to you in this hard time? We made friends with these people. Oh, you met them here. And yes, you're glad to have friends. So, you've made friends inside. That's lovely, beautiful. Your mother? Yes, this is my mother. Nice to meet you. My mother is a reporter. A reporter? Yes, journalist. I'm a cameraman. Beautiful, amazing. Oh, well, I won't take too much more of your time. Thank you very much. Good luck. He's feeling bombed. Oh, the cat's scared? Yes. Okay. Oh, and to see... So, the cat knows when the bombing is going to happen. What does the cat do when a bomb is coming? Does it act differently? Speak. Oh, meows. Meows, meows. What do you eat here? What do you eat? Oh... I'm back home. Oh, this is for tonight? And sausage. Sausage, right. And meat. Sausage, meat. Uh-huh. And how do you cook that? Cooking. This, cooking, this. Cooking. Ah, this is your bathroom? Right. I wish you good luck. Good luck. Thank you very much. Take care. Bye. Thank you. Cheers. Look after yourself. Okay, so we've come back to the apartment. There's actually bombing going on in the distance. We can still hear it. This is... Since I've been here, it's been every day. You know, it's scary enough for me coming for a little while, but, you know, there's people living here and there's people living in the metro station. After we did that interview in the metro station, the mother actually came up to me very upset explaining, you know, what it's like to live down there. It's not fun. It's horrible. You get sick a lot. Everybody's always getting sick because it's so damp. And inside the... Living inside the railway carts, the metro trains, it's got this damp smell. Definitely not healthy. And, you know, they say that they're always just on pharmaceutical drugs to try and heal them from their sicknesses. And yesterday, the boy that we interviewed, his best friend, went to the front line yesterday and he was looking really sad. The mother was crying. She said, I used to drop them off at kindergarten and now I'm dropping them off at the front lines. I thought they were very powerful words. There's more bombing in the distance. You can hear it now. So, as I have been doing in these Ukrainian videos, I will be leaving a link underneath this video where you can donate to help victims, people on the front line, people that need humanitarian aid. It covers the wide spectrum. If you want to learn more about it, we'll be under the same link with information where your money goes and things. So, feel free if you want to chip in. It does help a lot. Obviously, you can see this country is in dire need going to the... Near the front line today. That was insane. And, you know, there's still people living there. And Red Cross who I'm fundraising for do take humanitarian aid right out to the front lines to people that are trapped in villages. Anyway, I'll see you in the next video for more from Ukraine. And thank you so much for watching. And in case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night. Will you go or you always stay? Always stay. No matter what happens? Okay. No place to go. We'll leave here. Good luck. What's your name? Sergey. Nice to meet you guys.