It began as a normal shift at Chernobyl for Oleksiy Shelestiy but as night turned to day on February 24, distant artillery fire and the arrival of Russian troops changed everything. More than 100 employees, who had arrived at the defunct nuclear plant for their night shift just hours earlier, were now trapped as Russian forces crossed into Ukraine and seized swathes of land on their way towards Kyiv. Oleksiy and other locals tell their story to AFP. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES ARRANGED IN SEQUENCES