In Ukraine, fighting is intensifying in the area surrounding Kyiv. Russian forces are still trying to break into the city.

At the start of the week, an apartment complex was hit. Ana Shevchenko, now living in the country of Georgia, grew up across the street from that building.

“Just in front of the house where now my family, my mother, my sister, my niece are located," Shevchenko said. "It’s my neighborhood where I was grown, where I was born.”

For Shevchenko, this is the second time Russia threatened her loved ones. In 2008, she met her now-husband Levan from Georgia at a summer study abroad program. While the program was underway, Russia invaded breakaway regions in Georgia during a 12-day war. Now, Shevchenko fears for her family back home.

“They would like to leave Kyiv, but they are afraid because everywhere they hear the explosions on the roads," Shevchenko said. "There are many cases where cars with civilians were bombed. People were killed.”

In neighboring Belarus, a country supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Pavel Chuduk, an activist who protested the country’s presidential elections in 2020, says authorities are clamping down.

“There was a second round of protests today, but unfortunately, there were too many police in the evening in the city, which is much much more than the protesters,” Chuduk said. 

Now, as Belarus voted in favor of a constitutional change cementing President Alexander Lukashenko's ability to seek office again, and okaying the stockpiling of nuclear weapons, the west is tightening down sanctions.

“I don’t think in Belarus or Russia right now, especially in Belarus, my country, the big huge business banks do really feel sanctions because it’s not their first time," Chuduk said. "It’s been like this since 2014 when Crimea was down.”

Chuduk says the sanctions may affect in other ways.

“Regular people feel sanctions much much more,” Chuduk said. 

In Kiev, the fight continues. Ukrainian troops and volunteers are still not giving up the city.

“Every night, we just pray that they would survive the next night,” Shevchenko said.

Shevchenko is watching the resistance and holding on to hope.

“Even our old ladies are now becoming warriors and they are very successful, I would say," Shevchenko said. "This makes me really proud of our people.”

If you'd like more information about the protest movement in Belarus, email pavelthewonder@gmail.com