A woman who fled Odesa with her nine-year-old son has told of the “terrible” journey to the Polish border after waking to sounds “like bombing” last week. Halyna Wright, 39, lives in Odesa, Ukraine, as an assistant teacher at South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University, but headed for the border when the Russian invasion began on Thursday.
After arriving in Wroclaw, south-west Poland on Sunday, Mrs Wright now awaits the outcome of their visa applications as she and her son hope to fly to the UK on Wednesday to reunite with her British husband. Mrs Wright told the PA news agency that she woke at 5am when Russia invaded.
“It was a very strong noise, like bombing, two times,” she explained. “I called my brother straight away because he works in the military and I asked him, ‘what is this?’ and he said ‘the war has started’.
