Katarynia Golod describes that the war came as a shock, as no one close to her thought it would happen.
But one day she heard bombs falling outside her own apartment.
"Take your passport and escape"
She took her daughter to the village of Chernihiv where her mother, father and sister were, but quickly returned to Kiev to collect money and food.
But when Katarynia was to return, it was already too late, the war had developed rapidly, leaving the apartment was now associated with danger to life.
- My friends and family called me and shouted that I should take my passport and run away, but I didn't want to leave without my daughter, I was paralyzed, she says.
Lost his sister
In a refugee camp in Sweden, Katarynia received the news that her sister had passed away.
- My mother was forced to decide if she should bury her own daughter in a bomb pit in the ground, or if she should dig her own, it's terrible, says Katarynia, who tells how the loss of her sister lives on.
New life in Södertälje
Today, Katarynia is reunited with her daughter.
But traces of the war's trauma remain, she has lost her hair, and is struggling to learn Swedish.
But there are glimmers of light.
During the past year, she has started up the Ukrainian Cultural Center Sweden, and is starting to find her way back to herself.