Tears welled up in Nastia Estomina’s eyes, in spite of a forced smile for the benefit of her young children, every time she thought of the difficult journey fleeing her home in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine.

While still there, they were under constant threat of shelling, with fighter planes flying so low at times Estomina could pick out the expression on the pilots’ faces.  

Holding in the memories of life in Kharkiv before the war for the sake of calming her children is difficult, she told CBC News. 

“You’re trying to be strong and hold in the emotions, but when you