A Ukrainian woman has told of her desperate bid to get her family out of the country amid Russian invasion as she heartbreakingly volunteered to “swap places” in order to keep them safe.
Larysa Mishchenko said her ten-year-old granddaughter “cries herself to sleep every night” amid the threat of Kremlin troops advancing into the country.
The 59-year-old, originally from Cherkasy, was among a throng of protesters who braved freezing conditions to demonstrate outside Edinburgh’s Russian consulate building in the West End of the capital to protest against military action.
READ MORE: Edinburgh University orders students to 'immediately leave' Russia amid Ukraine invasion
Activists carried signs bearing the messages ‘F*** Putin’ and ‘Get Russia out of Ukraine’ while one placard featured the Russian president with a Hitler moustache under the slogan ‘Mad Man Putin’ during the ‘Stand with Ukraine’ demonstration.
However retail worker Larysa, who moved to Dalgety Bay in Fife over 15 years ago, said she was unable to “eat or sleep” due to worry over the future of her family as she bravely held the yellow and blue national colours aloft in a defiant show of solidarity with her homeland.
“Despite living in Scotland for many years, it is still my home," she told Edinburgh Live .
"This is peaceful action, Putin must stop the violence. We have to show solidarity. None of us slept last night. None of us have eaten, have been able to work.
“I am here to show the world that people who left Ukraine are still there mentally and if we could be, physically as well."
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Putin must face the "severest consequences" for his "unprovoked aggression" as she condemned Russia's "appalling and horrific" actions.
She described the crisis in the Ukraine as being "perhaps the most dangerous and potentially most defining moment since the Second World War".
Explosions could be heard in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv shortly after a televised address from the Russian leader, while explosions were also reported in the cities of Odesa and Kharkiv.
Larysa said children have been told to pack emergency provisions in case they are forced to flee towns and cities for safe havens in Western Europe.
But while she was focused on bringing them to Scotland, she admitted anywhere would be safer than their current location in the city on the banks of the Dnepr river.
She added: “My granddaughter is nearly 11-years-old, she’s scared. She doesn’t understand what is going on. She has been told she needs to pack some necessary stuff, her books, her toys. How can she understand why she is supposed to be ready in the middle of the night to pick up her stuff and run somewhere? Why she is supposed to keep a note with her name and phone number on it?
"She cries all the time. Her friends and classmates feel the same.
“For some of us who have been here as British citizens for 15 years, we want to get our children and grandchildren somewhere safe. For us it’s really heartbreaking. At the moment, anywhere they will be safe is our aim. To bring them here to our house, to our home, would be great, but for us at the moment it does not matter, I just need to get them somewhere safe because they do not have any other relatives. It is my future, my life, my heart, my soul; they are everything for me.
“Our elder daughter was not allowed to join us when we first came here because she was a student. I am ready to swap, just bring them here and I will go to Ukraine, I will do anything to make them safe.”
Edinburgh's city chambers building flew the Ukrainian flag in solidarity with Kyiv - the capital's twin city since 1989.
Student Ruslana, 22, who did not want to give her last name, said: "My heart is with everyone in Ukraine. This started in 2014 and last night we had a full scale escalation.
"Putin gave a very hateful speech on Monday when he said Ukraine was not a nation, he tried to erase our history. It is very important to show that no matter how far away Ukraine is from Scotland, there are people who care about it.
"I urge everyone to raise their voices, pressure the government to raise action, to raise sanctions. Russia will not stop unless Putin is stopped."
