One woman who fled her home town in southern Ukraine has said she does not think she will ever go back there.

Irina, a mother of three, fled the Mykolaiv region last summer and now lives in Kyiv.

She spoke to Newstalk's Seán Moncrieff, who has spent the week in the Ukrainian capital.

Newstalk’s Seán Moncrieff in Ukraine. Picture by: Newstalk

"We used to live really near [to a region that] is occupied by Russia," she said through a translator.

"It was dangerous for children, so we decided to go to Kyiv because we were tired from constant shelling - and [it was] risky about our kids of course.

"In Mykolaiv there was constant shelling, it was an artillery range.

"The sounds of war was always with us, all day.

"The children... automatically lay down on the ground when they hear something really big and dangerous when they were in Mykolaiv.

"They were not scared there".

Newstalk’s Seán Moncrieff beside a damaged building in Kyiv, Ukraine. Picture by: Newstalk

Irina said that changed when they came to Kyiv.

"On New Year's Day their dad went to have a walk with [the] kids, and there was an attack," she said.

"At that moment, my kids heard the sound of rockets [and] they were scared.

"The smallest one of my sons, he sleeps with anxiety and with worry.

"They [are] a little bit far away now from the frontline; here they are affected by this even more in a silent place."

She said she still has family in the south.

"My mom and mother-in-law they are still there, and my brother is living there, " she said.

"Now it's a little bit calmer than it was before, but it's still too near to the frontline.

"When there is an air siren, we know that rockets and maybe some drones are flying over the heads of our relatives there".

Newstalk’s Seán Moncrieff beside a damaged building in Kyiv, Ukraine. Picture by: Newstalk

Irina said her children are asking when they go home, but she thinks this will never happen.

"My kids are asking me, but we don't think that we will come back," she said.

"There is no job there anymore, and there are not so many businesses in the city left.

"There is no possibility to work and to earn money anymore because of war.

"We don't think we will be able to come back there".

Irina said she is looking for work in Kyiv, and has also been offered a place to stay.

"My friend gave me the possibility to live her in her flat," she said.

"She is a refugee in Europe, she went to Poland, and gave me the possibility in Kyiv to live in her flat," she added.

Main image: Sean Moncrieff in Newstalk studios and a destroyed building in Kyiv, Ukraine. Picture by: Newstalk