Bachelor star Sasha’s fears for family trapped in Ukraine ‘hell’

A former Bachelor contestant has shared confronting footage on social media, as family and friends remain trapped in Ukraine.

Bach star Sasha's Instagram posts.

Former Bachelor contestant Sasha Zhuravlyova has shared confronting footage on social media, as family and friends remain trapped in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian-born reality TV star, who appeared in the 2016 season of The Bachelor and then in the 2018 season of Bachelor in Paradise, revealed her fears for family and friends still stuck in the “hell” that is Ukraine as Russia invades the country.

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Bach star Sasha.

Loud explosions could be heard in this video.

“While I sit at home … in my beautiful fully furnished apartment, with a fridge full of food, and water running out of the tap … my friends and family wake up to this,” she began, before sharing several short videos that appear to be taken on the ground in Ukraine.

One video shows armed forces trucks speeding down a road before loud explosions ring out. In another, an armed forces vehicle is on fire in the middle of a road as more explosions can be heard.

Sasha Zhuravlyova on The Bachelor. Supplied by Channel 10.

Sasha shared more shocking vision from Ukraine.

“This is the town I grew up in … Kharkiv … Going to school … and my family and friends are now there going through this hell,” she wrote, before sharing anothervideo, this time of troops exchanging heavy gunfire on a street.

In a post to Instagram over the weekend, Sasha opened up more about her close connections to Ukraine, writing: “I have a Ukrainian passport. I speak and think in Russian.

I also have been living in Australia for the past 17 years and have an Australian passport.

Today, has been an extremely unbearable day for me! Even from far away, to see and read all the messages from my friends and family who are packing and fleeing my home town for safety! Wow, who would have thought this could happen. Today’s events don’t feel real to me!”

Sasha said it’s been “unbearable” watching the events unfolding in Ukraine.

Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second-biggest city, with a population of almost 1.5m people, and has seen intense fighting in recent days as Ukrainians battle to keep Russian forces at bay.

And there are signs that things aren’t going entirely to plan for Russian forces.

The mayor of the capital Kyiv has claimed there are no Russian troops on the ground in the city, and it’s a similar story in Kharkiv.

“Control over Kharkiv is completely ours,” Kharkiv’s regional governor Oleh Sinegubov posted on Telegram.

“The armed forces, the police, and the defense forces are working, and the city is being completely cleansed of the enemy.”

However, there are growing fears that nearby Belarus might be preparing to join the fight against Ukraine – and new satellite pictures showing a massive convoy of Russian forces moving towards Kyiv have also set alarm bells ringing.

And in grim news, at least two Ukrainian cities – Berdyansk and Kakhovka – have been lost to Russia.