War in Ukraine: Woman arrives in Derby after fleeing 'big horror'

A woman who fled her home in Ukraine to live with her mother in Derby said she "cried so much" when her grandmother refused to leave with her.

Mariia Surushkina arrived in the UK after catching a train to Ukraine's border and entering Slovakia by foot.

She said on the train blinds were shut, lights were off and it moved slowly to avoid being spotted by bombers.

The 28-year-old has been able to enter the UK due to her visitor visa from Christmas still being valid.

She had been living with her 84-year-old grandmother Valentina Babulenko in Dnipro, in Eastern Ukraine, who woke her up on the day the invasion began to say: "There is a war. They are bombing us. Russia has started an invasion."

Ms Surushkina, who works as a sales manager, said she left three days later without her grandmother.

"She said 'I am too old, I can't do this. Save yourself.... Don't worry about me. I have my relatives here. They are staying'," said Ms Surushkina.

"I cried so much. I was trying to force her to go. She said 'no I won't go - I wouldn't make it'.

"After this journey, I understood this is true - she wouldn't make it."

Ms Surushkina said it was "so hard" to get into the train station and there were so many people who "were angry and hysterical".

She added although she was lucky to get on to a train "we weren't safe" and they had to try to remain quiet with the lights off.

"This was very frightening when you are trying to not make any sound at all. Even children were so silent," she said.

She said at the border they were standing for about four hours to get into Slovakia.

"It's like we were escaping the big horror," she said.

Ms Surushkina, who then flew to the UK from Slovakia last week to join her mother in Oakwood, is one of two million people who have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion.

There are two main routes to a UK visa for refugees from the war, requiring them either to have family in the UK or a British sponsor for their application.

The UK has granted visas to 300 Ukrainian refugees under the new scheme so far but Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said more needed to be done speed up the process.

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