Patrick Sean Cullen's phone was close to his face. On the video call, it was hard to tell where he was, but the hints of war are there. The wall behind him has subway tiles and a metro poster – but the sound of trains was missing. The camera angle showed the top of his girlfriend Maria’s head resting on his shoulder.
The couple were sheltering underground when Patrick spoke to Prime Time on Tuesday night.
"There are some high-profile targets, Government buildings right next to us – so we took the decision to come down into the metro," he explained.
The 28-year-old from Dublin moved to Ukraine to live with his girlfriend just last month. He's studying remotely for a masters degree and had returned from Poland to Kyiv the night before Russia invaded. The following day, a missile landed on the street near where the couple were living – new love utterly overshadowed by war.
Five days into the war, Kyiv’s citizens were starting to panic, he explained.
"We were just in the pharmacy and there were long queues. People were looking for critical things like heart medication," he said.
"Some shelves are completely empty.They're talking about maybe two or three weeks of food supplies, tops."
Even with an armoured column kilometres long bearing down on the capital, Patrick was still optimistic.
"I think people are wary but defences seem to be holding up," he said. "We believe in the victory."
But the optimism of Tuesday night was soon to be replaced by the reality of invasion. The pair spent the night in the metro station as Russia's defence ministry announced plans to strike targets in Kyiv. Citizens were warned to leave.
The next day, Patrick and his Ukrainian girlfriend made the heart-rending decision to leave the city. Some 20 minutes after the pair boarded a train to Lviv, a Russian missile landed beside the station.
In text messages sent to Prime Time producer Lydia Murphy, Patrick explained that they had narrowly missed the strike.
"We had actually been smoking really close to the missile. Very glad to be alive," he wrote.
Through Wednesday and Thursday, with power on his phone fading, Patrick’s text communication slowed.
"We managed to get a bus though in all the havoc that was there - got rejected onto two trains because they were only letting women and children which was understandable - on the way to Warsaw now…"
As they made their way through the fog of evacuation, he saved his battery and words for the most important message.
"We want to draw attention to the actual plight of many unnamed people… who have lost everything or left behind what they love," he wrote.
Every evacuee has been forced to make an appalling decision – not least Patrick’s girlfriend who leaves behind her parents and extended family in Ukraine.
"Maria's not sure when or if she'll see her family again."
Late on Thursday, the couple finally crossed the border into Poland and Patrick sent a final thought.
"Our feelings are of relief, but also of survivor guilt, of helplessness, of sadness, of anger, but most of all hope for the people of Ukraine and for the world."
The war may be overshadowing the couple’s new love, but the hope remains.
