British woman stuck in Ukraine says she ‘couldn’t get through mass of people’ to flee across border

A British woman stuck in Ukraine during the Russian invasion has told The Independent she did not manage to flee across the border due to the “mass of people” trying to do the same.

Rebecca Jackson, a primary school teacher in Kyiv, said she spent 10 hours at the Romanian border in the hope of making it out of the country under siege on Friday, but found it physically impossible.

“People were passing babies over heads,” she told The Independent. “It was unbelievable.”

The 28-year-old said a Ukrainian family who live nearby have taken her and a colleague in, as they wait to get information from border officials about the best time to try again.

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The United Nations Refugee Agency said at least 150,000 people fled Ukraine into neighbouring countries in the first three days of the Russian invasion. It estimated up to 4 million could eventually end up leaving.

Footage captured by The Independent showed chaos at the Polish border as tens of thousands of families tried to make it out of the country, where Russian troops were moving in on several major cities on Saturday.

The UK told its citizens in Ukraine to leave “immediately” earlier this month as the threat of a Russian invasion - launched by sea, land and air on Thursday - loomed.

Follow the latest on the Ukraine-Russia war here

Ms Jackson said she could not do this due to bureaucracy over bringing her dog and issues with getting flights. Instead, she moved from Kyiv to the western city of Lviv shortly before the invasion happened.

She hitched a ride with her colleague to the Romanian border on Friday in the hope of making it out, but was still in war-torn Ukraine when she spoke to The Independent on Saturday night.

“We just could not get through the mass of people, it was so sad,” she said.

The 28-year-old is not only having to leave behind the place she considers her home due to the war, but also her Ukrainian partner. She cannot get a visa that allows family members of Britons in Ukraine to come to the UK due to a requirement for unmarried couples to have lived together for at least two years.

Her Ukrainian partner does not want to flee their home country, she added.

Earlier this week The Independent reported that there is currently no safe and legal route for Ukrainians to travel directly from their country to the UK in order to seek asylum, unless they have close British relatives. Senior MPs have urged the UK to ditch bureaucracy and visa restrictions to provide sanctuary to Ukrainians fleeing their country.

British national Ms Jackson said her family are keen to get her to safety back in the UK, but she was “devastated”. “I wish I could stay and help but I don’t know what I can do. I can’t fight. My Ukrainian is very limited.”

Others have told The Independent they were struggling to make their way out of the warzone, with transport brought to a standstill.

Nearly 200 Ukrainians, including three children, have died and hundreds more wounded in the first three days of the war, according to authorities.

The Russian army continued to strike Ukrainian cities with artillery and cruise missiles on Saturday, while troops closed in on the cities Kyiv, Kharkiv and Kherson.

Fighting was reported across the country, while a missile hit a tower block in the outskirts of the capital city, which a rescue worker said injured six civilians.