A teenager who fled the war in Ukraine and came to Scotland alone told of her heartbreak at leaving her parents behind.
Varvara Shevtsova, 18, arrived in Edinburgh on March 28 and met her sponsors at Waverley Station.
She had left her mum, Nataliia Shevtsova, in Munich, Germany, while her dad Oleh Shevtsova, 53, stayed behind to fight in Ukraine.
Varvara had been in her second year at university in Kyiv studying to become a social worker.
She posed for a photo outside her dream workplace, the Ministry of Social Affairs for Ukraine, on February 12 - a matter of days before the war began.
Now she is living in Montrose, Angus, with retired couple Harry and Catriona Smart, 66, who took her in on Monday.
She had made an escape bid with her parents but the roads were so congested they feared they had no hope, and took shelter in an underground station instead, sleeping on the floor before returning briefly to their home in Kyiv.
The family slept in their coats in case they needed to run to an air raid shelter.
Varvara said: "Before the war started everybody was so tense, so anxious.
"But no one could believe that an open invasion would happen. In Ukraine, it was horrible and intense.
"The first day I was woken up by my mom and she said, 'wake up'.
"I just jumped from my bed and asked her 'is it war?'
"She said 'yes' - and then we started packing up.
"The planes were flying very nearby our district, and our house, and we saw some flashes and explosions from our windows.
"Just the feeling of danger, the feeling of fear that you can lose your life at any moment.
"And then we decided that my dad will drive us to the border to help us to get to Poland.
"But we just looked out from the window, and there were too many cars parking and trying to leave the city.
"There was no way we could escape."
At the underground station people slept on the floor.
Varvara said: "No one was prepared so we slept on the floor.
"We had not enough food and not enough water.
"We were stuck in the shelter just waiting to see what will happen, and it was really scary.
"Then we went out for a couple of hours to go to our house and collect our things to go back into the shelter.
"My parents managed to sleep for a couple of hours but I couldn't sleep.
"We always slept in our outer clothing in case there was an air siren.
"Every night you fall asleep you just hope that you will wake up and wake up naturally, not because they are bombing our underground shelter.
"You just hope that you will wake up, and you won't die in your sleep."
The train they got on travelled in darkness to avoid being targeted by Russian forces.
"Because otherwise, somebody will notice us and will shoot at us and shell our train.
"We didn't even pay attention to where exactly the train will stop.
"Any train, we just jumped in, and then we're ready to leave.
"And then finally, we had some sleep."
Her mum is now looking after her gran Vitlana Shevtsova, 75, in Munich.
Varvara found Harry and Catriona on the website shelter4ukraine.com - and messaged them because they were retired and living alone.
She added: "I felt really, really bad leaving all of my life behind.
"It's just really devastating because my father is in Kyiv, my cat is in Kyiv, and my mom couldn't come with me to the UK.
"She stayed in Germany because there are some elderly relatives she has to take care of. I left all of my old life behind myself. And now, my friends are all over Europe, all over the world.
"I don't know what to do with the university, I don't know what to do with my work, and my plans have just been shattered.
"So that's what I live with.
"I'm happy that I'm in Scotland now because I can start searching for my life but this is one of the saddest periods of my life."
Dad-of-one Harry said: "Basically, we just thought we should do it.
"We felt it was the right thing to do.
"I guess that's a kind of gut-level emotional response in the first instance.
"When the homes for Ukraine scheme was announced, it was incredibly vague.
"The information took an age to come out. It took ages to get the form.
"The form was huge and complicated, and with no guidance as to when we would get a decision.
"We would urge the government to just ditch the whole visa thing and just let people come straight in, or let Scotland issue its own visas."
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here .
