There's relative calm on the streets of Lviv. You see people on the streets here; yellow public transport buses zig-zag through traffic and trams glide through the city's impressive architecture.
The buildings and open squares serve as a reminder of the Polish and Austro-Hungarian influence that's shaped Ukraine's sixth-largest city.
Tourists flocked here until recently, when Russia's attack on Ukraine triggered a national war effort. The conflict hasn't yet spread to Lviv, which sits about 70 kilometers east of the 535km border with Poland.
It's now a hub for tens of thousands of people fleeing this war. Many we meet here have come from the capital Kyiv.
Sasha is one of them. Aged 14, she was forced to give up her modest life in Ukraine's capital, which is facing heavy aerial shelling as it's the center of the government's power.
"I feel very exhausted," she says, looking weary but trying to be stoic. "It's really hard not to be nervous right now but I'm really happy to be alive."
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Many people in Ukraine are trying to put on a brave face and get on with life as best they can. But there is fear of the violence moving further west, and widespread sympathy with the millions of civilians currently feeling the force of the war with Russia.
"I'm very scared right now," says Sasha. "I'm scared for my friends who are in Kyiv and they can't move anywhere."
Her mother Svetlana and father Andriy watch on as I speak to their only child. Having made it this far to temporary safety, they've all decided not to go farther west and seek the refuge of Poland, a member of both the European Union and the NATO military alliance.
That's because Andriy won't be allowed to leave. Most men aged 18-60 are being told to stay behind and join the fight. Many have willingly chosen to do so, seeing it as a patriotic duty – but crossing into Ukraine from Slovakia, we saw some men being singled out of queues at the border and told to turn around.
"They can't let him leave, so that's why we should stay right now," says Sasha. But would she and her mother consider leaving without him? "No," she immediately replies, "because we're family."
It's a decision that could cost them their life or the hope of a more peaceful future but these are the sorts of tragic and fearful choices that are being made here day in, day out.