Terrified children in Ukrainian orphanages funded by Edinburgh football fans are forced to huddle in cramped corridors up to six times a day as air raid sirens echo around the streets amid the threat of Russian bombing campaigns.
Dnipro Kids founder Stevie Carr admits the organisation is desperate to bring dozens of young people to Scotland from a “life or death situation” in the country following the invasion by Kremlin forces.
The 55-year-old believes the capital’s large Ukrainian diaspora community could provide the ideal safe haven for the children after helping fund projects in the area for the past 17 years.
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However he warned time is running out for an evacuation route to be established as Russian troops close in all around the city, threatening to cut off access to Ukraine’s Western European borders.
Generous Hibernian fans - who started the organisation following a Uefa Cup meeting between the now-defunct Dnipro FC and the Easter Road club in 2005 - have already raised more than £30,000 to pay for potentially life saving provisions, while city rivals Hearts have pledged profits from their matchday programme sales ahead of the midweek meeting with Aberdeen to the cause.
But Stevie admits the children are in a “catch-22” situation over whether to risk fleeing the central city for potential sanctuary or stay put in their perilous, yet currently safe, position.
“Things are moving very quickly,” Stevie told Edinburgh Live.
“The likes of Zaphoroziya to the South, Poltava to the North East, Kharkiv, Kyiv the capital are all under attack and if these cities fall, Dnipro will be next.
“Russian troops are moving along the South, but if you are in charge of an orphanage as our contacts are, what do you do? Do you decide to put the children in your care to an arduous and horrendous journey living out of a bus or worse for a week to try and get to safety?
“If they wait, it could be worse. It’s just an impossible situation.”
Around 80 children are currently being supported by the charity across six facilities in the city, thanks to the tireless efforts of Natalie Polyshova - who took over as their local contact when mum Ira passed away in 2015.
Stevie explained he had been told the streets of the city, on the banks of the Dnepr River, are “deserted” as locals take shelter from any potential invasion.
But unlike Kyiv, where heartbreaking scenes of residents seeking refuge in underground metro stations have been shared worldwide, Dnipro has no such system in place, compelling those in the orphanages to improvise.
“There are six or seven air raid sirens a day in Dnipro at the moment. When they go off, you have to either get shelter or get underground,” he said.
“The apartment blocks are about six stories high. They have to go into the corridor and hide there so they are away from the windows and there is no glass flying through the rooms.
“They are trying to do what they can because they don’t know what is happening. There could be missiles bound for Dnipro, for Kyiv, they just don’t know until it’s over.”
He added the scale of the tragedy was brought home earlier this week when the local government managed to contact one orphanage to make a heartbreaking request.
“We thought it would be an offer of support or an evacuation process, but it was actually to ask how many more children they could take,” he said.
“That’s when it really sunk in. If you have a war going on, it’s going to create more children without parents.
“There are children out there who have lost their parents already and it’s not a small amount. The orphanages have a capacity of about 12 children each, and they were asking them to take another ten, nearly doubling the number, so the kids are going to be topping and tailing to fit them in.”
Nicola Sturgeon wrote to the UK government on Tuesday to demand all visa requirements for any Ukrainian nationals fleeing the invasion and seeking refuge be waived.
The First Minister said the stubborn rules imposed by Boris Johnson’s government were “insufficient” in the face of the unfolding humanitarian crisis.
Thousands of refugees have already rushed to the border with neighbouring Poland in an effort to escape conflict, but waits of up to three days for crossings to be approved have been reported.
The capital community has rallied to support relief efforts, with some even prepared to drive in convoy to the border in a bid to get vital supplies to those in need.
However Stevie is adamant the infrastructure is in place already for children to be given harbour in the city if UK rules are relaxed.
He said: “The support network we have in Edinburgh, in terms of Ukrainian culture; there is a community, there is a Ukrainian church in Leith, there is an embassy.
“If that route opened up to us, we'd be talking about 80 children. I think they could find sanctuary in Edinburgh and in Scotland easily.
“At the moment, that isn’t open. We kind of have to sit tight. Even if we get them out of Dnipro and into Western Ukraine, what then? We don’t have the infrastructure in place in Poland and Germany or anywhere. We do in Scotland, we have a very big support here.
“But once those routes of escape are closed, that’s it. There is no longer an option.”
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Hibs projected the Ukrainian colours onto the big screens at Easter Road during Sunday’s goalless draw with Celtic while fans carried the country’s flag in the stands.
Supporters have since rallied to back a prize draw through the Hanlon Stevenson Foundation with the chance to win goodies signed by club legend Franck Sauzee on his return to Edinburgh after 20 years in April.
Stevie admitted he had been “overwhelmed” by the support, adding the message had been sent to those on the ground in Ukraine.
“The support and help and offers we’ve had have been phenomenal,” he said.
“We sent the pictures of the screens to our friends in Dnipro to be clear on the message. We are with you and we are doing what we can to help.”
The Dnipro Kids appeal through the Hanlon Stevenson Foundation can be supported here.
