Deirdre Garvey: We must stand together to protect civilians in war zones

I recently found myself in a cosy hotel room in a city in western Ukraine. It was 2am, and I had finally drifted into a deep sleep after an intense day of travel. That’s when the sirens went off.

This was my first visit to Ukraine. My first time hearing sirens – the warning sound that for the past two years people have heard almost every day. Every ounce of security training temporarily left my brain.



I felt paralysed. The hotel’s basement or the bathroom? Those were my options. It’s safer to be where windows can’t be blown in.

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