A North East humanitarian has described the heartbreaking scenes she has witnessed in Ukraine.
Ruhi Loren Akhtar saw thousands of people fleeing the war-torn nation and watched on as tearful families were split up at the border. The 31-year-old gave up her job as an NHS podiatrist after being inspired in 2015 to help refugees across the world, founding a charity that has since delivered crucial aid to displaced people in places including Iraq, Greece, Serbia, and Calais.
Ruhi, who is from Morpeth, travelled last month on a relief mission to the Polish border with Ukraine and journeyed into the Ukrainian town of Shehyni, where people have fled to from besieged cities like Kyiv and Mariupol. More than four million Ukrainians are thought to have fled to neighbouring countries since the Russian invasion in February and a further 6.7 million are displaced within Ukraine.
