When the first rockets hit the houses in Kharkiv, Yana and Yevgeny Tishchenko took their two children Anya and Nikita and ran to the nearest metro station. For weeks they lived in an underground carriage, not daring to go outside. Anya was five years old at the time, Nikita - 12. The family's home was destroyed and they are now slowly rebuilding it, writes Catherine Eigendorf in a report from Kharkiv for the German public broadcaster ZDF. The family is currently living with friends. Their life is filled with fear and uncertainty, because war is something you can't get used to - they say.
Everyday life during war is exhausting
Sleepless nights, children who have not been to school for three years and study online, but only when there is electricity - This week is exhausting. Like many others, the Tishchenko family hopes for an end to the war, or at least a truce.
However, hopes for real negotiations have diminished since US President Donald Trump began to communicate directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Many Ukrainians are stunned that Trump has identified their country as responsible for the war. What else awaits them, they ask themselves.
The trains - Ukraine's lifeline
At the Kiev station, trains continue to run on time in the third year of the war, the railways having become the country's most important lifeline since the government closed its airspace in the name of security. Ukrainian trains bring in ammunition, refugees, soldiers, even foreign heads of state.
The Kiev - Kramatorsk express is mostly filled with soldiers heading to the front in the east. Their faces are tired, their thoughts are not filled with hope. Olga, 25, who is also in the army, has just been separated from her mother. She has been defending her country for three years and tells ZDF: "I want the war to end. We are tired, but we will fight to the end."
Train conductor Svetlana travels on the route seven months a year. They call the Kiev-Kramatorsk express "war" because everyone who travels to Kramatorsk goes directly to the front line. "I worry about the soldiers, I want them to survive," says the conductor.
Civilians fall victim to attacks
At the Kramatorsk station, it becomes clear how dangerous the work of railway workers is. At the beginning of the war, the Russian military fired a missile at thousands of waiting civilians - a war crime condemned internationally. 58 people were killed and over 100 were injured, German TV channel ZDF recalls.
The fact that Russia is deliberately shelling civilians, hospitals, schools and kindergartens is very frightening. Drone attacks are carried out almost every night in Kiev. "Lack of sleep gradually turns into torture," says teacher Irina. When the air raid warning sounds, people have to move away from the windows. Irina would go to the bathroom, lie down in the bathtub and try to sleep there.
"The situation is only getting worse"
43-year-old Ivan is among the older soldiers traveling by train to Kramatorsk. He does not believe that President Donald Trump can now be expected to negotiate peace. "There is no sign on the front lines that the end is in sight. The situation is only getting worse," he told the media.
That is how things look to people in Kiev, far from the front lines. Putin's army continues to bomb the Ukrainian capital with drones, targeting residential buildings, schools and hospitals.