A Lanarkshire teacher has spoken about her sadness at having to leave Russia where she had spent six months teaching.
Thirty-year-old Melissa Cheney has lived in a number of countries such as China, Tanzania and Spain, and had gone to Russia for a new adventure.
But after the ongoing war started to break out, the Wishaw native returned home despite feeling safe and wanting to stay in Russia.
She said her time in Russia - where she planned to spend a year or two - was "amazing".
Melissa told Lanarkshire Live : "My time in Russia was so enjoyable and I had an amazing experience.
"The place I worked was amazing and I had a really great apartment in Moscow.
"I have a desire to travel and I got an opportunity to work in the country so that is why I went there in the first place.
"I only got to stay in the country for six months but would have planned to stay there for a year, most likely two.
"When the war started to break out it didn't make any difference to my life whatsoever. That first week I thought I was going to be able to stay.
"But obviously things started to progress and my family and friends were getting really worried, so I had to make the decision to leave.
"The war broke out on Thursday and I had decided to leave on Monday just because I didn't want my family to worry so much."
Melissa said that in the days after the war broke out, things in Russia started to change slightly from usual.
She said there were more police checks and she was checked a lot more and asked for her passport randomly in places like the subway and before she got in a taxi.
But this didn't really affect Melissa going home as she had booked her flights in advance, just before any sanctions were in place by the UK Government.
Melissa told us : "I didn't have any issues flying apart from a huge queue to check-in. I got my flights at a relatively decent and affordable price as well compared to what they were just a few days later.
"I had some friends who did have issues and had flights cancelled and they had to take other mesaures to leave the country such as flying from elsewhere.
"No one stopped me from leaving. My job didn't want me to go, they tried to convince me to stay just because they liked me very much. There was no issue trying to leave Russia.
"Right now I just feel really sad about the situation. I am worried about my Russian friends.
"I have so many Russians now that I love and care about so for me it's hard to know they are possibly going to have their lives turned upside down for something that they don't know the full reason why.
"A lot of them don't really want it and I just feel sorry for them. I wish I was still there as I really enjoyed staying in the country."
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