A British medical student studying in Ukraine has fled the country as fear of war with Russia escalates.
Haider Ali, from Birmingham, said students at Dnipro Medical Institute in central Ukraine were concerned about the escalating situation in Ukraine.
The 21-year-old Aston Villa fan arrived at Gatwick Airport on a direct flight from Kyiv shortly after noon on Saturday.
He arrived just hours after the Foreign Office warned UK nationals in the country, thought to number in the low thousands, to “leave now while commercial means are still available”.
He told PA: "I was in two minds for the past three weeks about it, actually.
"Should I go, should I not go, people are already starting to trickle out of Ukraine and go back to the UK.
"They are losing out on the in-person practical time in lectures. Of course, some of it can go online but you know you would rather be in the hospitals with the teachers.
"But I spoke to another friend and made up my mind and said right, I'm going and after I booked my ticket last Friday, the day before that it went into the red zone (risk level) and it sort of made me realise that I made the right decision."
Mr Ali added: “I’d been in two minds about coming back because of the advice coming out by the British Embassy, about the amber alert, red alert.
“A lot of people, a lot of students were waiting for the red alert, and it happened on Friday.
“Once that happened, everybody booked their tickets and left as soon as possible.”
Mr Ali said his university, the Dnipro Medical Institute in Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine, had advised students to “get out as soon as you can”.
He said around half the students at the university are British.
The UK and other Nato countries have urged their citizens to leave as fears grow that Russian President Vladimir Putin could order an invasion in the coming days.
Mr Ali said: “I think the main thing that people were getting worried about as well is, because it’s along the Dnieper River, a lot of the people were saying, if Putin wants to suffocate Kyiv, push his warships along that path as well.”
He said he was hoping to return to Ukraine by June to continue his studies.
Mr Ali said Ukrainians’ opinions were split on the likelihood of a Russian incursion, but that the perception that Western media were blowing the crisis out of proportion was changing.
He said: “The Ukrainians are generally very laissez-faire as in terms of people, but the last couple of days they’ve started to get worried.
“And when that happens, alarm bells should be ringing.”
