More than two million people have fled Ukraine following the Russian invasion, according to the United Nations (UN).
Refugees are crossing the borders into neighbouring countries such as Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and Moldova with smaller numbers going to Russia and Belarus.
Some people in Wales still have family members in Ukraine or who have fled the country and are trying to return to Wales.
Read more: Cardiff foodbank bus to be used to take aid to Ukrainian refugees
Allison Hrydynskyy, 55, has been married to her husband Mykola for 20 years. They have lived in Abergavenny for the past four years with Mykola owning a small business near Brecon.
Their family in Ukraine has fled to Poland and Allison is currently in the process of applying for visas to bring them to Wales.
Allison said: “They’ve lived in their house for 50 years. They’ve built it from scratch and they just had to walk away the other evening with my seven-year-old nephew.”
Allison’s sister-in-law Halya, her son Dima, aged seven, and Halya’s mother Irena have fled Mostyska in Ukraine. They are currently staying with friends in Przemyśl, a town just over the border.
“In their town they caught some Russian uniformed soldiers and they were marking buildings because there’s an army base in that town,” Allison said.
“They caught them and asked what they were doing and they said they were being marked for future bombings so my family just left.”
Allison said that marks had appeared on a block of flats used by soldiers in the town and a military office, which is not far from her nephew’s school and family home.
She said she had messaged Mark Drakeford and tweeted Boris Johnson in the process of trying to get visas for the family but wasn't able to apply until March 4 when the Ukraine Family Scheme was launched. The family will have to go to have their biometric information and documents checked on March 16.
She is currently looking into housing options for the family in preparation for their arrival in Wales. "I don't know how long it will take when they've had their appointment for them to actually get the visa to get here," she said.
"It's a long-winded process but we've started it."
Allison said she is “relieved” that her family is out of the country but that her nephew is afraid of the aircraft flying over the town.
“There’s lots of planes and helicopters at the border town and that’s traumatising him – all the aeroplanes and things, he’s scared.
“He wouldn’t even go upstairs in the house that he’s staying in because he’s closer to the sky.
“We’re absolutely relieved they’re out but that’s only the first stage of it.”
Allison added that some family members remain in Ukraine. Mykola’s uncle, also 40, was in Germany working when the invasion began and his wife and six children, who range from two to 13 years old, remain in the country.
“They can’t go to the border and stand in that queue with all those children. It’s so cold over there. They can’t get out,” Allison said.
She added that there is hope that a Polish charity will be sending a minibus to their town in Ukraine to get them out of the country.
“She’s on her own. She can’t get six kids through the border,” she said.
The UK's visas offer to refugees has been extended to parents, grandparents, and siblings as well as "immediate family."
Home secretary Priti Patel said she was "doing everything possible" to speed up efforts to issue the travel permits while on March 9 UK Government transport secretary Grant Shapps said 760 visas had so far been granted with applications topping 27,000..
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We are in close contact with the UK Government and the Home Office to understand how its proposed schemes will operate and how Wales can support people in Ukraine fleeing the conflict.
“The First Minister has written to the Prime Minister urging the UK Government to make it easier for people in Ukraine to seek sanctuary in the UK at this time of war.
“We continue to make preparations to accept people fleeing the conflict and to ensure support is readily available in Wales. We have set up a dedicated webpage setting out how people can help and sources of support for people directly affected by the war in Ukraine.”
Svetlana Lilley, 55, is a textile artist who lives and works in Briton Ferry with her husband and 17-year-old son.
She has family in the Khmelnickiy area of Ukraine, about a two-hour drive from Kyiv, including her mum, her nephew and his wife and friends.
“I married a man from Wales – he’s a Cornish man but has lived in Wales for many years and considers himself Welsh,” Svetlana said.
The couple have been living together in Wales for 18 years. “I’m absolutely disgraced at Russia’s actions,” she added.
“My mum is Russian but she lives in Ukraine and she’s truly a Ukrainian person [at heart] and she couldn’t believe that Russia could do such a thing to its own people.
“How can they say they are protecting Russians if they are bombing Russian people who live in Ukraine?
“It’s not just pure Ukrainian in Ukraine – it’s all nationalities. None of them are pure Russian or pure Ukrainian – not anymore – so they are killing their own people by doing that.”
Svetlana said she feels “hopeless” that she cannot help. “I feel very, very anxious because most of my friends, relatives, live in different places in Ukraine,” she said.
Svetlana’s husband worked at Chernobl for many years and she has friends in the area. “Now the power station is taken and people have been taken as hostages,” she said. "It’s affecting my family, it’s affecting me, even here.”
Svetlana worries about her friends and relatives who are still living in Ukraine. “I go to bed and wake up and hope they are still alive.”
Every morning she chats to friends who have relatives in Ukraine eto ensure that their relatives are safe. “We’re all scared for them,” she said.
Svetlana has been able to speak to her nephew in Ukraine who told her that her mother is baking bread as she has been unable to buy any from the shops.
“My biggest fear is that if the internet is down, I won’t be able to talk to them, and I won’t be able to know what is happening to them.”
Svetlana said one of her relatives is considering sending his wife out of the country. Ukraine's president has ordered a general military mobilisation and has banned men ages 18 to 60 from leaving. However women and children are still able to leave.
“Poland is doing an amazing job taking all over and we’re not far away from Poland so he is considering sending his wife and sister abroad. Some of his friends, young men, have sent their wives and children abroad to try to escape,” he said.
Svetlana’s sister was abroad at the time and doesn’t know how she will get back. “Her little daughter, 10 years old, stayed with my mum and dad, so she’s asking my mum and dad if maybe they can fly to Poland and meet there together.
“Poland is taking children without documents so it would be possible for them to go to Poland and meet with my sister if she can make it to Poland.”
Svetlana said it is difficult for those who have left Ukraine to come back into the country and it’s difficult for those who want to leave the country to do so.
“It’s hard to describe what’s going on there. There’s quite a bit of panic. People are scared – nobody knows what’s happening. Everybody goes to bed and says: ’We hope we wake up in Ukraine,’” she said.
Svetlana lived in Moscow for six years before war began in Georgia in 2008. “I understand how people feel in Ukraine. It’s scary when you wake up in the night and you don’t know where the bombs are. Your windows are shaking – it’s scary. I know how it feels,” she said.
“The war started in Georgia and I said: ‘It’s going to be Ukraine next’ because I can feel aggression in Russia in politics. They want Ukraine as well.
“I’m pretty sure if they’re not stopped now Europe are going to be next. If you do not protect Ukraine today you’re going to have it on your doorstep tomorrow. People have to understand how horrible this man is. He had no morals, he has no heart, he would walk on the rubble of your city and he wouldn’t care.
“People have to understand, and people have to speak up now, because if he takes Ukraine there’s nothing going to stop him after.”
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