First Natalia News Today

They are in whichever country they are in. it is incredibly touching. it was amazing to speak with natalia and i thank you to her. so were getting some new video from the moment of the explosion at the train station that was attacked by a russian strike. were going to have that next. plus, some more news, some more breaking news from another part of the world, a shooting at a bar in israel is escalating tensions there. cnn is live on the ground. hy. w? what do you want to leave behind? thats you...

♪ natalia said she would sneak up to her mothers apartment, only to use the bathroom. >> one of the biggest fears in my life at that moment was if i start doing my toilet procedures, if i just put down my trousers and they would kill me. i was afraid to die without my pants on. >> reporter: sometimes from the flat, she could see tanks coming down the street. she recalled the women and children, mostly stayed below ground as the men ventured out for food. when they did, they would report back o...

17-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter. a little over a mile from the town of hostomel. >> we heard some shots. i heard explosions. there appeared motorbiker and he was shouting, the airport has been bombed. the airport has been bombed. >> reporter: natalia and her kids headed home and to her mothers flat nearby, where they surveyed the basement, just in case they would have to take shelter. >> i can see the sky over the airport, a lot of smoke over the airport. >> reporter: they were waiting ...

Theyre escaping or trying to escape what they rightfully worry is coming their way. russian forces targeting civilians, like we saw revealed near kyiv this week. i spoke with a woman who endured the siege near the capital in bucha, trapped in a cellar for 14 days with her elderly mother and several other families. at first natalia said she couldnt believe russia would invade her adopted ukraine. she was born in russia, a native russian speaker, and was busy running a language school in bucha. >>...

Seats. >> the bridge between kyiv and bucha, it has been exploded. and it was the main reason i decided the children should go. >> reporter: she stayed in bucha, tracking their progress, through borodyanka just down the road. >> we just got this information 30 minutes later that there were tanks. >> reporter: your kids got through minutes before tanks were there? >> 30 minutes, yeah. >> reporter: at the time, natalia thought the russians would never attack civilians. but this was borodyanka afte...

Reunited with her children in poland and through connections with friends, they have been taken in by a german family in dusseldorf. mariana and frederick. >> im happy to give something back to natalia and her family. >> ulrich is the son of a nazi soldier who died in world war ii, and he says he makes it a practice of supporting refugees in germany. right now from ukraine, previously from syria, which say pretty astounding arc in the story of his family, special how natalia is so divided by thi...

It is called -- street. and we just heard that battle, just shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, shot. one day there was shooting nonstop shooting for 15 hours. >> reporter: on march 8th, after two weeks in the basement, natalia was able to call a friend, whose husband convinced her to make a run for it. >> he just pushed me with his words and besides i just shouted to everyone, lets jump into the cars. >> reporter: bucha was covered in smoke from a burning building. she drove through snow and ash, joi...

>> it was shots, missiles, and there were just burned people, burned bodies. >> reporter: she drove by the city of irpin, through a number of russian checkpoints, and at one point natalia says a line of tanks merged into the middle of the column of civilian cars. >> they were hiding behind us, they were using us like living shield. >> reporter: after a few more miles, natalia finally came to a ukrainian checkpoint. >> all the time i have been calm, but at that point i couldnt -- i just burst int...