A Ukrainian woman living in Edinburgh has spoken of her despair as her parents, living in a Russian occupied region, run low on vital medication.
Aid worker Zhenya Dove was interviewed by Sky News on her efforts to free people from the under siege country.
Showing visible emotion, she spoke of her own parents who are living in Kherson - an area which has been occupied by Russian troops.
She said her family and friends have run out of vital medical supplies, including thyroid, heart and blood thinning medications, and described the situation as "desperate".
READ MORE - We tried Edinburgh's new Eat Out campaign and our meal was a serious steal
"They are blocking all humanitarian aid," the 33-year-old said. "My parents and a lot of my friends have run out of medicine. I have their list, and I am trying to source it everywhere, but there is just no way to get it across. Every day I just see the pleas for heart medication, for thyroid medication, blood thinners, baby products, they just can't get it. The aid that we collect, we can't deliver it to certain areas unfortunately."
She said her parents are not likely to leave Ukraine now, despite her best efforts. She said: "I used all my negotiation tactics for them. I was pleading and saying, 'look we can buy you a house, come visit you' but they are stubborn, and they have lived all their lives there. My mother says 'how can we leave? this is our land. This is our house where we raised you, where we raised our grandchildren.
"A lot of people think the same way, they say: 'this is our home, we're staying."
Zhenya, who lives in Leith, moved to the UK 13 years ago and considers the capital to be her home. She recently helped her sister and niece to escape Ukraine and said they are now in Europe awaiting visas to join her in Edinburgh. Although she admitted they were "relatively safe", she said she would not call it a happy ending.
"My sister is a successful businesswoman, just two weeks ago she was managing a string of restaurants. They were living their lives, had planned holidays, the children went to school, and overnight their lives are ruined. She's coming with nothing. She was saying to me 'how to you pack up a life in one suitcase?'. It's going to be a very, very long road to recovery."
Zhenya has put her career on hold to help rescue people trapped in her homeland, as well as deliver aid.
Sign up for Edinburgh Live newsletters for more headlines straight to your inbox
She said: "It is an absolutely tragic situation I have to admit and I've had to listen to so many horrible stories from people who I know and love and from strangers who were contacting me on Facebook, hoping to escape. I am receiving emails and calls in the middle of the night from people crying and asking for help for their elderly parents, there's families with disabled children and they are just really desperate to get out.
"The humanitarian crisis is reaching a tragic level. We have all been working hard, but it is getting so much harder and it is getting so much harder just to travel within Ukraine. Just a week ago you could get a safe route out, now it's desperate and it's not doable unfortunately.
Zhenya says she is trying her best to reassure people that she is doing "the best she can" to help them.
She added: "The second an opportunity arises we will get them out. But that's all I can do to be honest."
