Lyana Kameneva woke up early in the morning and saw that she had a lot of messages and missed calls, where she was told that Russia had begun the invasion of Ukraine.

- I cried when I heard that, and wondered how this could happen, says Lyana Kameneva.

During unrest in the 90s, Lyana Kameneva fled Ukraine.

Then she and her husband moved to his native Syria.

In 2015, the war in Syria began, Lyana was forced to leave the country and flee again, along with her husband and two children.

When the family had just begun to recover from the trauma of the war in Syria, the war in Ukraine began.

- I get so scared when I see the pictures and feel powerless because I can not influence the situation, says Lyana Kameneva.

Feeling powerless

Lyana's mother and relatives from Ukraine call and ask for advice on how to handle the situation.

They turn to Lyana because she is the only one in the family with experience of such situations.

Right now, Lyana is advising her relatives to wait and hope that the war will end.

She says coming to a new country and leaving everything you have is very difficult. 

- Escape is the last choice you can make, because you lose everything you have built up in your life and start from scratch, says Lyana Kameneva.