Ukraine war before and after photos

Inna Sheremet remembers fondly walking her dog every day in the forests of Bucha, having lived in Ukraine her entire life.

But on February 24, at 5 a.m., she heard the explosions.

“I packed my things, took the dog and left,” Sheremet told CNN, escaping before her fifth-floor apartment was shelled and destroyed.

The life she once led — visiting friends, grilling kebabs next to her house, cycling around the city — was gone. “My whole life before the war is destroyed,” Sheremet said. “All I have left is a small bag of clothes and a dog.”

Bucha, in Kyiv Oblast, is one of many cities devastated by the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine. Everyday scenes of commuting to work and hanging out with friends on weekends have been replaced with the horrors of war, as millions are forced to flee or seek shelter.

“A few small towns just don’t exist anymore,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on March 12. “And this is a tragedy. They are just gone. And people are also gone. They are gone forever. So we are all on the front line.”

CNN spoke with those who have had their entire lives uprooted since the war began more than a month ago. Their stories of the scarred landscapes where their hometowns once stood show how much has already been lost. But also what they’re fighting to protect, as Ukrainian forces continue to defy the Russian advance. Here’s what they have to say.