TWO Ukrainian doctors have fled their country as the Russian invasion continues.
Aleksandr and Elena, who asked to be known by pseudonyms, are now with their daughter in Hove after bombing devastated their home city near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
The area is now occupied by Russian forces.
Most of the pair’s friends also left Ukraine when war broke out in February. The ones who did not phoned shortly after to say their goodbyes. They have not been heard from since.
“The majority of them we can’t get hold of because there is no connection,” said Aleksandr.
“There is no electricity, there is no heating, there is no water, there is nothing. People who are left in that region, they called to say goodbye.
"Because it was physically dangerous to stay, we left, but our hearts haven’t.
“It’s heart-breaking. We are very stressed, and very depressed."
Aleksandr and Elena left their city on Thursday, February 24, when Russia invaded. They travelled for four days by car to the Polish border and then went to Warsaw, where their daughter had driven to meet them from the UK.
They reached in Hove on Sunday, March 6, and remain unaware if their home has survived.
"We don’t know what has happened to our house," said Aleksandr.
"We hope everything is OK. But a lot of properties in the whole country have been bombed and destroyed. As far as we are concerned it is all OK, we haven’t heard that it has been destroyed.”
The couple, who had affluent lives as doctors before the war, said they were not surprised by Vladimir Putin’s aggression.
“The Russian people have been lied to for generations by their government. Ahead invading Ukraine they were misinformed,” said Aleksandr.
“The Ukrainian people are fighting with an aggressor, they have a reason. Russian people don’t have a reason to be in Ukraine and fight, so it’s almost like they are fighting a meaningless war.
“When they understand what’s happening they are as shocked as everybody else – they’re trapped.”
More than 2.8 million people have now fled Ukraine, according to the United Nations, with neighbouring Poland receiving the greatest number, 1,720,227, refugees so far.
Those without relatives in countries neighbouring Ukraine are offered shelters in reception centres. The UK has launched its Homes For Ukraine scheme, under which residents can invite a refugee to live with them for a minimum six months.
Many Ukrainians struggled to leave the country when the crisis began, scrambling for places on over-crowded trains and buses leaving major cities.
“People were in shock, so a lot of people didn’t understand what to do,” said Elena.
“In Ukraine, we travelled for four days. It was a very long journey. The first part of the journey was quiet, the second part was very busy - there was a 1,000-mile traffic jam.”
Aleksandr and Elena are temporarily living with one of their daughters and her family, but will soon require their own space.
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They are appealing for a property to rent, and hope to become involved in charity work to provide medical supplies to Ukraine. They also hope that, at some point in the future, they can return to their home - or at least to where it once stood.
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