Military s barrage are catching their breath. no one wants it but it beats the alternative. the stories reveal why they fled. translator: we live very close to irpin. the stories were very loud. the kids were very scared and we decided to go. reporter: she once worked as a nanny and her 13-year-old daughter margarita fled kyiv on february 28th with nothing but their documents and their dogs. we had to decide either bag or dog and we decided to take the dogs. reporter: the dogs, too, are a mother and daughter. the mattresses on this gym floor, their home, since march 1st. the fate of so many close to her, friends and classmates, unknown. i have a lot of friends including some who cannot be reached at this moment. we try to track they will down
Close to irpin, and it was very scary. the explosions were very loud. we spent two days in the basement. the kid was very scared, and we decided to go. reporter: anya, who once worked as a nanny, and her 13-year-old daughter margarita, fled kyiv on february 28th with nothing but their documents and their dogs. translator: we had to decide either bag or dog, and we decided to take the dogs. reporter: the dogs too are a mother and daughter. the mattress is on this gym floor, their home since march 1st. the fate of so many close to anya, friends and margarita s classmates, unknown. translator: i have a lot of friends, including some of them which cannot be reached at this moment. you try to track them down on facebook, but you see they don t come online, and it s scary. reporter: anya has been able to connect with her husband, still back east, who now works for the local defense forces. is he fighting?
Either bag or dogs. we decided on the dogs. reporter: the mattress is on this gym floor. their home since march 1st. the fate of so many close to anya. friends and margarita s classmates, unknown. translator: i have a lot of trends including some of them which cannot be reached at this moment. you try to track them down on facebook but you see they don t come online and it s scary. reporter: she has been able to connect with her husband still back east who now works for the local defense forces. is he fighting? translator: yes. in territorial defense. how is he doing? translator: it s better not to say. they come from luhansk, from donetsk, from kharkiv, from mariupol, from kyiv, from bucha. to here. to this university. to this beat-up old gymnasium
Lviv university. in peacetime, this gym where you would see wrestling matches potentially, but now it s being used to house dozens of displaced people. as you can see, no privacy here. people right beside each other. some of them have been here for weeks. i m going to kneel down here and show you what their accommodations are like. this is just a basic wood palate here that s been laid down on this gym floor and over it here is just very thin mattress. very thin bedding. by no means is this comfortable or ideal for any of the families who are here. many of them flowineeing from s of the worst affected areas like kharkiv. i ve also noticed a few pets here. people s dogs and cats they were able to bring with them. i ve asked them what s the plan, are they going to move further west across the polish border,
You can see that s just been laid down on this gym floor. and over it here is just very thin mattress, very thin bedding. by no means is this comfortable or ideal for any of the families who are here. many of them fleeing from some of the worst-affected areas like kharkiv, kherson. and again, they ve been sitting here for weeks with nothing but what they could carry on their backs. i ve also noticed a few pets here. people s dogs and cats that they were able to bring with them. i ve asked them what s the plan. are they going to move further west across the polish border, try to make it into the rest of europe? but some of them are just waiting it out, hoping despite these horrific reports that we re hearing from eastern ukraine, hoping that they will be able to return home. in the meanwhile, of course, as they stay here, they re fully reliant on volunteers, we re told by the coordinators here, it s volunteers that are bringing this basic bedding that you see. it s volunteers that are b