Ukrainian journalist 'still wakes up every morning to check on loved ones' after a year of conflict

• Ukrainian journalist, Maria Romanenko speaks with Rob Smith

A Ukrainian journalist says she 'still wakes up every morning to check on loved ones', one year on from the conflict in Ukraine.

Maria Romanenko fled Ukraine with her boyfriend Jez Myers, following the Russian invasion.

She arrived in Manchester on March 2 2022, after being granted a visa to live with Jez in the UK.

She said: "Every morning starts with checking the news, with what has been bombed.

"You get used to it much like Ukrainian's get used to the power cuts, they get used to the sirens, they get used to the curfews and the streets being empty.

"It's not something you want to get used to because it's never nice, but that's our life now we just hoping it will finish very soon."

Recalling the moment she realised Ukraine had been invaded a year ago, Maria said: "I had the worst wake-up call in my life - just my partner shaking me awake and telling me there's bombs being dropped everywhere across the country."

It took the couple 40 hours to cross the border and four days before they were granted permission to enter the UK.

Maria says her biggest regret was not being able to say goodbye to her Grandma before she passed away.

She said: "We grew really close in the last two years and she was a fantastic woman and I wasn't able to say goodbye to her when I was leaving because we were in such a rush.

"Then she passed away on Christmas Day... I had the message about her and that was a day I will never forget."

Maria said she feared she was on a 'kill list' of Ukrainian journalists and activists created by Russia.

She said "I always knew journalists would be under threat, that they would be targeted."

She also spoke of losing her friend and former colleague, Max Levin who was killed whilst covering the invasion.

Maria said: "My former colleague Max Levin was killed but not just killed, he was tortured and he was executed in the Kyiv region in the first month and he was just working as a journalist.

"Every Ukrainian that you talk to will tell you the same thing - that Ukraine will win.

"It just a matter of how many lives this will cost us, and a lot of this depends on the west's support."

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