KYIV, Ukraine — When the Russian invasion reached Kyiv, Nazariy Mykhaylyuk woke up to the sights and sounds of the first attacks on Ukraine's capital city.
"It was 5 o'clock in the morning when the first bombs blowing and it's like super scary because I'll tell you we saw that previously only in the movies," Mykhaylyuk recalls.
Except the attacks are far from a movie scene.
Nazariy says, right now it's Ukraine's reality and its people are living a nightmare. "It seems like it's impossible to happen in your own country and once it happens, believe me it's super scary and all you want to do is to save yourself and your family and to go as far as possible."
A dentist in Kyiv, Nazariy says he constantly thinks about all of his patients.
"Two days ago one of my patients called me, she's from a city called Kherson what has been taken by Russians at this moment and she was scared because she doesn't know if she'll survive after this and she was asking because her daughter is studying on the west of Ukraine and she's only 22 so she was asking me to help support her," Mykhaylyuk said.
On the first day of attacks in Kyiv, Nazariy and his family fled the city and immediately headed west where they have been staying at a lodge in the mountains for the past two weeks.
Mykhaylyuk said, "the goal is to scare our population so we give up but the thing is that we will not give up because this is the fight." Adding, "this is the war for our nation and for our country."
He and his family have enough food, water and supplies to hold them over for now while they remain out of harm's way.
But he doesn't know how long they'll be safe since he's just over 400 miles from the nearest war zone.
"We hope its going to finish as soon as possible because our army is very moderated, people are very brave because its our land, it's our country and we don't want anyone to come here and tell us how to live," said Mykhaylyuk.
Waiting out this war is brutal to bare, he says, and he's devastated and enraged by what Russia has done to his home
"This is why the west, U.S., and NATO need to understand that they have to protect Ukraine because right now Ukraine is actually protecting Europe. We are the border between Russia and European Union and this is why if they protect our people we will protect them."