In Co Mayo, a Ballina man is anxiously awaiting the safe return home of his wife Kate Holtvianska, who has been visiting her father in Ukraine.
Liam Alex Heffron is a historian and actor from the village of Moygownagh.
He says Kate has managed to travel to Istanbul and he has booked her a flight to Amsterdam where he will meet her in the coming days. The couple hope to be back in Mayo before the end of next week.
He's relieved his wife is out of danger but says her father, 71-year-old Volodymyr Holtvianska, remains at home in the city of Poltava, northeast of Ukraine. Kate is an only child and her mother died when she was 16.
"My wife has been staying with her father for a number of months and is deeply concerned for his welfare. But he's elderly and says that this is his home and he's not leaving. However he insisted that Kate leave the country for her own safety.
"We are so worried about him because he is a diabetic and only has a week's supply of medication," he added.
Liam and Kate met through mutual friends and married in Ukraine just before Christmas 2018.
It took a year for Kate's immigration papers to be approved and they eventually settled in Ballina.
Kate ran a successful make-up and beauty business until it was forced to close due to Covid restrictions.
Liam is a history teacher and completing a PhD at NUI Galway.
"In the light of all that is happening it's ironic that my doctorate is about the social causes of the local Irish revolution entitled 'Contested Space: The revolutionary intersection of land hunger, social justice impulse, and memory, within a rural west of Ireland community'."
Liam is also an actor and played the part of Garda Sean Doran in RTÉ's Fair City aswell as appearing in Hardy Bucks, Ros na Rún and other programmes.
Liam said the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a shock but not a surprise and it was surreal to watch events happening in real time.
"Queues have started in the city and the internet went down and the banking system stopped working for a time and there's no cash in ATMs. Shops are closed and people are panicking because they don't know what is coming next."
The Heffrons have been watching events unfold further north of Poltava around the city of Kharkiv which is close to the border.
"There is a full assault taking place there with attacks on military installations around the city and the airport. The worry is do the attacks stop at the eastern part of Ukraine or do they keep coming and go through Poltava where Kate's father remains and keep going towards Kyiv. That's the big worry."
Liam says he feels very relieved that Kate is in Istanbul and booked on a flight to Amsterdam.
"A lot of Kate's friends are stuck in Ukraine as all flights are cancelled. The Russians said overnight that all commercial aircraft needed to get out of the sky.
"The only other option is to travel to east Ukraine and we're watching thousands of people fleeing Kyiv but the danger is when you're on the open road and you don't know what is going to happen next.
"There is so much uncertainty around the plan Putin has put in place. Is it just to secure the eastern part of Ukraine or is it an incursion to an overall invasion? It's very hard to know."
