An Irish businessman in Ukraine says Irish people have arrived in the country to fight with the Foreign Legion.
Brendan Murphy is heading towards the Polish border with his family, to try and escape the Russian invasion.
They are travelling by car, which he says can be quite cold given the weather conditions.
But he told Newstalk Breakfast they have been fortunate on their journey.
"We're in a safehouse - we've been fortunate in that we've had safehouses organised between Irish and Ukrainian people along the way.
"Except for one night when we were under a bomb, an attack siren, so we were stuck by the side of the road.
"We're not far from the border now, about an hour and 40 minutes, but the waits at the border can be long.
"And we're waiting for documentation from the DFA, so once all of that is in place we'll cross.
"If you can imagine a car - and it's snowing now and it's cold - that's the difficulty.
"Especially with an elderly mother-in-law and a three-year-old child".
He says Ukrainian people remain defiant, along with those from other nations who are joining the fight.
"There's block posts that are defending every village, every town, every crossing.
"But also there's a Ukraine Foreign Legion now.
"And the first Irish veterans - they have to have military experience - arrived in Ukraine last night, which is good to see because they have the Irish Tricolour on their arm.
"And they're coming from all nations to formally join the Ukraine Foreign Legion as part of the military.
"So it's not only the Ukrainians who are very defiant, it's other people too".
Dan Rivers, ITV News correspondent in Dnipro, says the country was hit by multiple rocket strikes overnight.
"We had an air rad siren this morning first thing in Dnipro.
"But the last three days we've been up and down to Kharkiv to see what's going on there.
"Very, very sad scenes in Freedom Square - you've probably seen that really distressing video of the rocket hitting the local government building there.
"And I think overnight now there are reports of multiple rocket strikes.
"I think the university has been hit, various other buildings as well.
"So the campaign of bombing to try and take out various symbols of the Ukrainian state appears to be carrying on by the Russians".
Exclusive: inside Kharkiv’s devastated Freedom Square pic.twitter.com/vdvkQghDHm
— Dan Rivers (@danriversitv) March 1, 2022
Dan says the people are determined and united, but some are beginning to move.
"We turned up yesterday to the scene of this rocket strike at the local government building - and I couldn't believe that there were people out there with brooms clearing the rubble, given the risk of another strike was fairly high.
"They were there, they didn't care - they all kind of posed up in front of the ruins of this buildings with a flag and sort of were chanting anti-Russian slogans.
"So they are incredibly defiant and united from what I can see.
"But... people realise the risks now: the first two days we were travelling up the road to Kharkiv, there were hardly any cars on the road either way.
"Yesterday there was a stream of traffic coming out of the city.
"And I think people are beginning to realise things are looking very bleak".
