72-year-old Ukrainian woman's hazardous trip to safety in Weymouth
Alla Yuzhakova counts herself as one of the lucky ones to have escaped the ongoing crisis
A 72-year-old Ukrainian woman has been reunited with her family in Weymouth after a 2,000 mile journey fraught with hazards.
Alla Yuzhakova tried to stay in her hometown of Mykolaiv in the South of Ukraine as long as possible before attempting to leave. The journey would take her days, with multiple drivers through multiple countries.
Constant military checkpoints, long queues of traffic and a military curfew make travelling even short distances to the border incredibly difficult.
On the 24th of February at 5am she texted her daughter "Can you call me, the war has started."
That day Ms Yuzhakova had an important appointment in Kyiv to apply for permanent residency in the UK due to her ongoing cancer treatment. On her way back she noticed a nearby military airport in flames.
Irina Wilson, Alla's daughter told Greatest Hits Radio Dorset:
"At first people weren't thinking it will last. They thought it was just some sort of attack that will not carry on. Unfortunately things only got worse.
"She stayed with a lady for about a week and they were pretty much spending most of the time in the bomb shelter.
"So the first day she had to go to the bomb shelter because of all the air sirens going on all the time. She just sat in the dark in this room filled with people for 7 hours.
"Mum was just in and out of the bomb shelter quite a lot, shocked and scared and crying in disbelief really. She said to me she feels like she just takes part in some sort of a movie filming."
Food, medicines and cash machines ran dry very quickly meaning Alla was cut off from support from her family. That's when she made the decision to leave, setting her sights on Bucharest, Romania.
She was able to get a taxi to Odesa, a journey that should take 2 hours, but because of constant military checks it took 15 hours.
Irina said the next day was just as difficult:
"After Odesa they travelled to the Moldovan border and when there was just four miles left it was just traffic and the car can't go anywhere anymore."
They faced the prospect of another 14-15 hour wait. Instead the 72-year-old cancer patient decided to walk to the border.
Irina said:
"The weather turned horrific with snow and rain and there were so many other women and children just walking to the Moldovan border.
"It was faster by foot, they got through Moldovan border where they were fed and given hot drink, but there was no transport."
A group of women had been told a bus might come to take them further, but nothing was certain.
"Mum saw this man in a car and one lady was getting into the car and mum asked the man to take them to the Moldovan capital.
"He took them to the Moldovan capital for free, bought them hot drinks and took them to the bus station.
"The bus took them 11 hours but they made it to Bucharest airport and I went there the night before and stayed in the hotel and in the morning I went to Bucharest airport and I met my mum and this other lady and they cried and they were exhausted and I think they were probably still in shock with everything."
At the airport there were many more Ukrainian women and children waiting for family members and loved ones to pick them up or for flights further onwards.
Irina said her mum was very lucky:
"It's amazing but she does have a survivors guilt. She says she feels really guilty she actually made it out. She is with us and she has no other family, I'm her only daughter. She would have been with us anyway."
Just days after Alla left, the road out of Mykolaiv was bombed, blocking it off as an escape route for others.