A grandmother in rural Perthshire went from living by herself with her two dogs to a full house with six people and seven dogs when her stepson and his family had to get out of Ukraine.
Jayne McNeil is delighted to see her grandchildren, twins Robert and Sofia (12), safe in Scotland along with son Robert senior, his wife Vika (Victoria), their Ukrainian grandmother Rosa (82) and their twin poodles Cappo and Chino - plus three more dogs. They are all now living under her roof in Auchterarder.
“Daily living is hugely altered,” said Jayne, understating the situation.
Robert (56) went to Ukraine 20 years ago and, with a fellow Scot, started a business which helped multi-nationals like Nestle and Coca-Cola set up offices, and sorted legal and tax issues associated with accessing the new market for consumer goods in independent European Ukraine.
It grew to employ around 700 staff. His business affairs prospered, he bought a hotel and a restaurant.
He married Ukrainian Victoria and their two children grew up with dual nationality, speaking English, Ukrainian and Russian and attending an international school.
The family were on vacation in the Maldives when Putin invaded Ukraine.
Robert never got to go back to his home in Kyiv, but brought his family straight back to Scotland where his father and stepmother lived separately.
After briefly being with his dad, Robert moved everyone to the Perthshire countryside to stay with granny Jayne (64).
“I would not have left Ukraine if I didn’t have to but the worst is yet to come,” said Robert.
“When I speak to people in head office they don’t want to believe it, but I know Putin is going to bomb the hell out of Kyiv, it is part of his plan of terror, there will be nothing left. It will happen in the next two to four weeks.
“Until then he’s buying time, pretending to do peace negotiations.
“This will end but not for a while, it won’t be over for another six or seven months. I forecast an ugly future.”
While his wife and children were spared the strain of trying to exit Ukraine with the millions of citizens pouring across borders and queuing for transport, Robert still had to think about others who needed to evacuate.
Once his kids were settled with granny, he went across to Poland to bring Vika’s mother - Rosa aged 82 - back to Scotland.
Rosa speaks no English. She arrived in pretty good health but with high blood pressure. In the scurry to leave she had forgotten to bring her medication.
Luckily, Jayne was able to use an app to translate between languages and took Rosa with her to get what she needed from the GP surgery in Auchterarder.
Then there were the family pets, five dogs and a cat stranded in Kyiv. A Canadian friend in the city drove Robert’s car with the animals inside to Poland. Robert went to Poland a second time and drove the car back to Scotland.
At Amsterdam, the port authorities said only five animals could travel to Newcastle, so the cat stayed behind. A return visit is being considered to pick up the cat.
“Nobody knows how long this is going to go on for, how long the grandchildren are going to be in Scotland, if they can return to a normal life, if there will be anything left of their birthplace,” said Jayne.
“They are 12 so it is not as if I can shield them from the news.
“They have phones and iPads, they follow everything that happens, they know exactly what city has been attacked.
“Both children are continuing school lessons online. They speak perfect English so if they had to go to school here it would not be a problem of language.
“Sofia particularly is very active online, sharing videos with her friends. Many of them are in Poland.
“We wait to see if Robert decides to take them back in a few months’ time.
“Right now, none of us can say what is going to happen.”
“Each day I wake up and can’t believe it,” added Robert.
“It’s no good trying to imagine where we’ll be in a year. I’m very fortunate, everybody I love is here in Auchterarder, safe.
“It’s impossible to fix everything. All day I think about my staff, where they are, what they face, some have stayed, most have gone from Kyiv.
“One woman from head office has had her home completely destroyed.
“It is horrible to watch. Everything is in real time. I spend my days organising aid, be that food transport or body armour.
“At least my staff got their salaries in February and March. But we don’t know if there will even be a banking system operating in a month’s time.
“Money in Ukrainian banks may just cease to exist, there may be no mechanism to pay people.”
While the adults tussle with the difficult details, young Sofia and Robert Jr have been getting on with their new home life in Perthshire with two grannies and plenty of dog walks. They had fun running up a flag over the outside steps of their new home, a million miles from the splendid urban centre where they played and went to school just weeks ago.
