One of the UK's first refugees from the war in Ukraine has shared her harrowing story of the 2,000-mile journey. Anastaysia Manina, 38, was forced to leave behind her home in Kharkiv – now on the front line of the Russian invasion.
Speaking to HullLive, she said she first learned about President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade when she was woken up by a "strange noise" at 5am on February 24. After speaking on the phone with her ex-husband, it became clear what they could hear was the first round of shelling near their city in north east Ukraine.
"I'm really happy I wasn't stuck by shock, and I could act", she said. "I don't really remember how I packed."
Ms Manina quickly fed her two cats and worked out what belongings she could fit in her three backpacks. Besides clothing, she packed an amulet bought by her mother in Jerusalem and a unicorn made by her five-year-old daughter's other grandmother.
She and her daughter left their apartment at 6am and made their way to shelter in Kharkiv's metro. "I told her we are going to the seashore," said Ms Manina at the time.
The possibility of having to leave Ukraine had already crossed her and her family's minds. A few days earlier they had booked a flight to Turkey for February 28, but this was was no longer an option.
A plan was quickly formed to travel to Ms Manina's birthplace in Kropyvnytskyi, central Ukraine, and stay with a friend, Oksana. "We decided to travel in the centre of Ukraine", she said.
"On the 24th, there was huge traffic in Kharkiv. The next day was silent, almost peaceful, but it was not. You feel animal horror and you smell it".
After a brief stay at a friend's house on the city's outskirts, Ms Manina, her daughter and her ex drove by car for 10 hours to Kropyvnytskyi. She said the whole family rallied round as it became the "family mission" to save her young daughter.
The next step was to make it across a border and out of the country. She said: "We decided not to go to the Polish border because it was already overcrowded – instead, we tried to reach the Moldovan border."
The family headed for the city of Chernivtsi, south west Ukraine. Again with her ex at the wheel, their journey took 24 hours of non-stop driving, plus a six-hour traffic jam outside of the city.
Ms Manina said this part of their escape was the scariest as her ex had recently been diagnosed with farsightedness but had been unable to pick up prescription glasses before the invasion. It was "with relief" that this leg of the trip ended and the next day, February 28, Ms Manina and her daughter crossed the border into Moldova at the town of Mamalyha.
"The main achievement of the trip, my baby didn't hear a single blast. It's just a miracle", she said. "We asked for a transfer from volunteers to go to Romania and were provided a car in 10 minutes. When we crossed the border to Romania, we were welcomed and there was lot of food and clothing for kids."
It was at this point that her daughter, kept well-fed throughout, provided a moment of light relief. "My daughter screamed aloud, 'Mum look, they have sausages, we are saved'. I was asked what she had said and I translated and the whole border was laughing."
Leaving Ukraine and making it to Romania had been Ms Manina's immediate goal. The next challenge was to work out what to do next.
They were offered a place to stay by a volunteer named Christian, who worked at Suceava Airport, as she worked out her next steps. She settled on travelling to Vilnius, Lithuania, where family friends lived.
Despite not considering the UK due to visa concerns, her mother, who lives in Hull, urged her to try. "I didn't want to be a ping pong", Ms Manina said. "My mum bought me the tickets. She said, 'you have a transfer to go to Luton. You probably can stay in Great Britain'."
They arrived at Luton Airport on March 2 and – after several hours of documents being checked, fingerprints and photos taken and some confusion over their statuses – they were given six-month visas. Ms Manina said her daughter was "full of energy" and thanked border staff for their care of her, saying: "They entertained her for two hours."
At the time of fleeing Ukraine, Ms Manina was between jobs for the first time in her life. Her career began as a Russian language journalist before she moved into PR, with her last job as an interim chief executive.
She and her daughter are now staying in Hull with her mother, a journalist who herself left Ukraine following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. "In the second day of the war, I started to speak in Ukrainian", she said. "Now, with my mum, I speak 50 per cent in Russian and in Ukrainian."
Ms Manina's twin brother remains in Ukraine and is now part of the country's armed forces. She said: "In the peaceful times he was an IT architect and consultant. I am very, very proud of him."
Her two cats are being looked after by her ex-husband's parents, still in Kharkiv. "I worry about those who have stayed, because in some places, it is a humanitarian disaster", she added.
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
