An expat living in Ukraine told of his heartache after missing a visa application to leave with his family including a newborn baby.
Dad-of-two Ken Stewart lives 40 miles west of Kiev with wife Tania, and children Yaryna, aged three, and Douglas, who was born two weeks ago.
They are currently unable to return to Scotland due to a visa delay for Tania, who was recently discharged from hospital following a caesarean section, and a visa appointment had been booked at the British Embassy for Friday.
An air base just a few miles away from his house was attacked this afternoon and military planes are flying overhead.
Mr Stewart said: "I can hear military jets in the distance and you can hear gunfire as well, like large calibre - tanks, helicopters, it's pretty heavy.
"We just heard that our local airfield here, the Antonov airfield, which is the home to the biggest aircraft in the world, has been attacked, just in the last hour.
"That's pretty near us, about a 20-minute drive from here.
"So it's getting closer."
He is making plans to flee and booking accommodation in the west of Ukraine where the family could shelter temporarily.
But the visa appointment will be missed.
Mr Stewart, originally from Edinburgh, said: "That's not going to happen now and it's extremely stressful.
"We're only concerned for the children's safety and I'm concerned for my wife's safety.
"That's the thing that's worrying me - what do we do? Do we stay here? Or do we get out and get the children to safety?
"The fact is, I'd like to get my children away from this.
"I'd like them to be safe.
"It's a difficult situation. I'm torn because I don't want to leave this country. I've lived here for 15 years.
"It's my wife's country. My kids have dual nationality, it's their birthplace.
"We don't want to go, but we don't want them to be in any danger."
Mr Stewart's brother in Scotland has written to the family's MP, Richard Thomson, again to push for an emergency visa to be granted.
If able to travel, Mr Stewart is considering taking his young family on a six-hour drive to Poland, where they could fly home to Scotland.
Mr Stewart says: "We just don't know what's going to happen in the next hour or even two hours, three hours, the next day.
"We don't know if it's going to be full scale, like World War Two style, or how they are going to behave towards civilians.
"This kind of thing we just don't know.
"At the moment, they're supposedly keeping it to military targets, but they don't seem to care about the perception of the world.
"So that's quite dangerous."
