At 4.30am on February 24, Svitlana and her family woke to the windows shaking as Russian bombs fell on Ukraine.
"We woke up and you just had these birds – lots of birds – flying from one side to the other," Svitlana said. "It was so scary.
"It was a couple of times we heard the bombing. So we just got up, got our clothes on and decided to get far away from the city."
As Vladimir Putin's troops crossed the border into Ukraine, Svitlana, her fiancé Nick and her two children – Max, 13, and Eva, 11 – got into the car and drove west.
They left their home in Zhytomyr – around 80 miles from Kyiv – and headed for family in the west of the country.
"We had about 30 or 40 minutes – we realised it was starting," she said.
"It was a good job we had a full tank of petrol. When we were driving out of the city it was just long queues out of the petrol stations.
"By 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning, it was already chaos."
They arrived at the home of some family another 45 miles west of Kyiv.
"It was quiet there," Svitlana, a beautician, said. "We went to the shop to get some important food.
"It was packed with scared people. People trying to get money out of the cashpoints. There was a big queue and no money – everyone was starting to really panic."
They spent 24 hours resting, before moving on again to Chernivtsi, near the border of Romania and Moldova.
But the six-hour drive was filled with worry.
Svitlana said: "They were stressful hours. There were roadblocks and lots of police with guns. They stopped every car, asked where you were going and checked your documents.
"We have friends at Chernivtsi and they helped us. We stayed there for a day and had showers and warm food.
"It was calm there, but it was really getting dangerous so we had to go."
By now, people were queuing to cross Ukraine's borders.
At Lviv, Svitlana said, some people had to stand in line for two days to get into Poland.
Instead, the family crossed into Romania.
But Nick, Svitlana's fiancé, had to remain behind. Shortly after the invasion, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy banned any Ukrainian men aged between 18-60 from leaving the country.
They were also forced to leave behind Chapa, the family dog.
Once across the border into Romania, they were given food and supplies.
Svitlana said: "Everything is packed in Romania. There's no places in hotels, apartments, anything.
"So some volunteers found us a place to stay: with a couple – probably in their 50s – with this big house, who every day help Ukrainian families to get where they want to go. They were amazing, such nice people.
"And the next day we were trying to find a way to England. But it was difficult. There were no trains, no flights.
"Me and the kids, we were already stressed out."
From there, they got a lift with two Ukrainian families who were driving to near the Polish border.
Nearly four days after leaving home in Ukraine, Svitlana, Max and Eva were able to get another lift to Krakow in Poland.
Svitlana said: "We stayed in a hotel and looked for tickets to the UK and actually breathed out."
The trio – all of whom have British passports – were able to fly into Stansted on March 1.
Now they are staying with Paul MacGregor, Svitlana's step-father, near Bury St Edmunds.
Paul, who helped coordinate their journey to the UK, said: "I don't think I've ever been so stressed in all my life."
For the foreseeable future, the family will stay in Suffolk and hope that Svitlana's fiancé can join them.
Svitlana said: "You kind of start to understand that you have to get on with life. We have to get the kids to school, try to get their lives sorted and try to get my fiancé out. Because at the moment it looks like there is no life there."
Eva has now settled into life in the UK and is in year six at a local school.
Svitlana said: "She's so happy in the morning and was so happy when she came back."
Max will soon start in year nine at another school in Bury St Edmunds.
He is still in touch with friends who are stuck in Ukraine via social media. Many of his friends are set to start online schooling despite the war.
Svitlana said: "We obviously need to start a new life now.
"But we don't know where or when it'll finish.
"We still have family and friends there and we don't know how long we'll have to wait for my fiancé to come over here and be able to sit down and relax."
And Svitlana is not even always able to relax in the UK.
She said: "There's a base around here with aeroplanes.
"When I hear it I have this worry inside of me. Or if I hear a loud noise, I get scared.
"It will probably be with us for a very long time."
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