Ukraine conflict: Football fans' charity bids to evacuate orphans

A charity set up by Scottish football fans after a European match 17 years ago is attempting to evacuate almost 80 orphans from Ukraine.

Hibernian FC supporters initially organised a collection for local children in Dnipro before a Uefa Cup match in September 2005.

After the trip they were inspired to launch Dnipro Kids.

But the Russian invasion has switched its focus from financial support to helping the orphans flee the conflict.

Chairman Stevie Carr told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland: "I have been worried since the first rockets landed.

"It is a really worrying time and, if its worrying for me, I can't imagine how worrying it is for them."

Mr Carr, who is currently in Krakow, Poland, said his attempts to get the children across the Polish border had been hampered by a shortage of buses and the logistical challenge of packing them on to overcrowded trains.

He told the programme the children are based across several small orphanages in the city, which is on the Dnieper River in south-central Ukraine.

Mr Carr said: "How we get them out is still unknown and we will just keep trying.

"At the moment the city is quiet. It is not yet under attack."

"But if you look at Dnipro on the map and you look at where all the other battles are taking place, in Kyiv, in Kharkiv and down in the south, if any of these cities are taken by the Russian army the next step is Dnipro."

His ideal aim would be to allow the children to settle in the UK but he admits this would be difficult unless the government eases its current visa restrictions.

Mr Carr said: "They may well say on the news that they are going to allow 200,000 Ukrainian refugees into the country but they then put stipulations on that which means it is never going to reach that amount.

"They would be as well saying 'We will let 500,000 in' but then if they put rules and regulations in it means there's only going to be a couple of thousand ever likely to get in. That needs to change."

On Tuesday Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the UK needs to speed up the processing of visas for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.

Mr Wallace told the BBC the government could and would do more to support refugees, and his department would help the Home Office accelerate the system.

There are two main routes to a visa for refugees from the war, requiring them either to have family in the UK, or a designated UK sponsor for their application. Only the family scheme is in operation so far.

So far the UK has granted visas to 300 Ukrainian refugees under its new scheme.

The UN says that more than two million people have now fled the war in Ukraine - most of them to Poland.

In its first year Dnipro Kids raised £16,000 and used the money to buy items such as clothing, baby essentials and medical equipment.

It also funded building repairs and supported a local crisis pregnancy centre, in a bid to prevent struggling families having to give up their children.

And while its origins are in Leith it has received donations over the years from football fans across Scotland.

Mr Carr said not all of the orphanages were keen to evacuate but he added: "We have said to them that if you don't leave soon that corridor of escape might be closed off."

He plans to cross the border into Ukraine to meet the orphans and reassure them before they travel to Poland.

Mr Carr said: "You can't imagine what it would be like to up and leave your house completely to go to a different country where it is a language your don't understand.

"It must be a very difficult choice to try and leave."