An Ayr shop owner has told of her relief after her sister and five-year-old niece escaped to safety from an underground bunker in Ukraine.
Olga Stewart (Milchenko), who runs Olga's Alterations in Newmarket Street, says their getaway is a miracle after they risked it all to reach the security of Lviv which is near the border with Poland.
An application for a visa is now going through in the hope Olga can bring them to Ayrshire.
However, her brother-in-law and nephew will stay in Ukraine as they await to be enlisted to the military to join the frontline effort against Russia.
Ayrshire Live exclusively told last week how the popular Ayr dressmaker was crying every day as her family hid from the terror unfolding near the capital Kyiv.
Olga's sister Lyudmila, 46; brother-in-law, Krill, 42, and their daughter Margo, 5, were sheltering from waves of Russian attacks.
Their son Vlad, 28, was living in an underground car park in Kyiv.
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But by Friday, the trio stuck in the tiny oxygen-starved bunker hastily got into a car and drove the treacherous 400-mile journey to safer territory.
A relieved Olga was finally told the news she had been longing for on Sunday as her sister and her family managed to get to Lviv.
Olga told Ayrshire Live: “It is a miracle they got there.
“They had to drive through water at one point because the bridge was not safe and they drove across fields to escape the dangerous roads.
“They had no choice. It was drive off roads or die on the road.
“My sister could not stop crying when I spoke to her. I hope they can now get across the border and come here.”
Olga now hopes to bring her sister and niece to Ayrshire and is stepping up efforts to get them a swift passage from Eastern Europe.
The family plan to fly from Poland to France where they can access a visa at a centre being set up before making the last leg of their journey to Scotland.
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