Yehor Herasymchuk was woken to a phone call by his business partner on the morning of February 24 in his apartment in Chernihiv, Ukraine, just 75km from the Russian border.
The day he hoped would never happen finally became a reality as his business partner told him: “Guys, a war has begun”.
Explosions could be heard in the distance, a sound he would become all too familiar with over the coming weeks.
“Do you know what the first thing I did was?” he says, “made a coffee; the important thing is not to panic and to stay calm. This is what I try to do.”
This calmness would prove vital in getting his wife Kate, two-year-old daughter Miia, and dog Badi Ray to safety in Mullingar, a journey that would take over a month.
