Alexandra Matzota: In Ukraine, we’re terrified and the West’s rash strategy isn’t helping

People take pictures as they carry a giant national flag of Ukraine at a stadium to mark a 'Day of Unity' in Kyiv. Picture: Getty Images

As a child growing up in Ukraine, every time I blew out the candles on my birthday cake I made a wish that there would be no war in the world. Now the war is at my door.

For almost eight years we have been hearing about the dead at the war front in Donbas, seeing the tears of people who lost their families and homes, and who had to start again from scratch. In January, I was visiting friends in the UK, and reading the latest news stories about Russian troops building up on the border.