A Ukrainian researcher living in Cork has spoken of the helplessness and guilt she feels at not being able to do anything to help her family.
Tatiana Vagramenko began a research project at University College Cork yesterday but says instead of being excited by the new challenge, she is constantly worried about her family in Ukraine.
Tatiana's parents and her sister are in Crimea and are having difficulty escaping as the front line of the war has cut off the peninsula from the rest of Ukraine.
While other members of her family are being forced to take shelter in underground car parks and metro stations due to Russian air strikes and missiles.
Speaking to RedFM News, Tatiana says there's still a sense of disbelief about what is happening in her country.
"I feel like this is not rea, that I'm just sleeping and this is my nightmare. I refuse to believe that it's happening to my country, that it's happening to people I love.
"I wouldn't say I'm desperate. I think there's something beyond beyond any feelings. That's a tragedy to me.
"I know I'm not the only Ukrainian who is at the moment not in Ukraine. There is this bad increasing sense of being helpless and being guilty because you're not there you cannot help them, you cannot save them."
