Aaron Bray is a San Diego native who’s lived the last couple of years in Kharkiv, Ukraine, after a stint with the Peace Corps. And now, alongside over a million Ukrainians and foreigners, he’s had to flee the country in the wake of Russia’s invasion.

Today, we hear Aaron’s first-person story about what it was like to leave his adopted home behind … and why he says he’s going back.

More reading:

Read the L.A. Times’ full coverage of the war in Ukraine

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Commentary: ‘I’m scared, bro’: Inside Ukraine, through the harrowed eyes of two U.S. athletes

‘A lot of innocent people will die’: Ukrainians in California decry Russia’s attack

‘When there are troubles, we go to God’: Ukrainian Americans gather in grief at L.A. church