For Ukrainians living in Ireland, International Women's Day would normally be a big day of celebration, with women receiving flowers and gifts. This year, 8 March is nothing of the sort.
"I remember women smiling, celebrating with family and friends. It was always a day off, a great holiday and a brilliant day," Olena Ouldali, a Ukrainian woman living in Santry in Dublin recalled.
"This year we can't even think about this day because we are just counting days of war.
"Even being in Ireland or another country, all our thoughts are with our men. We’re not waiting for gifts, we’re not waiting for flowers, just bring us victory, bring us peace, that’s the only thing we can think about."
Olena has lived in Dublin for almost four years, but her family remain in Ukraine.
"My family are still there. My parents didn’t want to leave Kyiv," she said. "My father is still there but my mother is trying to leave Kyiv now with my grandmother and aunt to find a safer place."
Olena has been begging her family to leave the capital since Ukraine was invaded by Russian troops on 24 February.
Now that her mother, grandmother and aunt have decided to leave, her worries are far from over.
"When they left, it’s like, while they are on the road you don’t know if it’s safe, I'm very worried actually. That my father is still there is heartbreaking and I'm asking him to leave too, but it’s his decision and I don’t know how it’s going to be," she said.
"Each day you wake up and our day doesn’t start with coffee anymore, it starts with messages from close friends and family... 'How are you?’ and ‘We're alive, we are safe.’
"If they don’t answer immediately then you have bad thoughts that something has happened. And just it’s hard you know, to see how people suffer, how lives are ruined and destroyed."
Olena hopes that peace will come quickly. She is proud at how Ukrainians have come together in the war.
"Ukrainians are very strong and we’re united now and have all this hope. We’ve been fighting for our independence for 30 years already, we hope this terrible event, this war will make us again stronger," she said. "I am so proud."
