In a school bus, a British teacher is attempting to evacuate colleagues from Ukraine’s capital city.
Paul Hodgson, a native of Washington, Tyne and Wear, who now lives in Kyiv with his fiancée, rescued a group on Friday and was planning to return for others.
Mr. Hodgson, a teacher at Kyiv’s British International School, stated that the majority of his students and parents had fled the city.
However, he said that several of his coworkers were still imprisoned inside.
Mr Hodgson told BBC 5 Live that the path into and out of Kyiv was “very perilous,” and that he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to get back through the barriers.
He claimed he was devising a plan to securely transport personnel to his current location in Cherkasy, which is to the east.
“Even in Cherkasy there’s reports of gunfire and aerial bombardment,” he said.
“I haven’t heard much of it but I know it’s on the outskirts.
“Even here we’re only going to be safe for so long so we have to consider our next steps.”
The Ukrainian military claimed it has repelled numerous Russian strikes on Kyiv, while battle has raged in a number of other cities.
Since Russia’s invasion, about 200 Ukrainians have been murdered, including three children, according to Viktor Lyashko, the country’s health minister.
As he departed on Friday, Mr Hodgson, who teaches A-Level maths, said he saw a lot of military vehicles heading into Kyiv, where many colleagues stayed.
“So it’s whether or not we can go and get them, whether we can get there and whether they can actually get to where we’re going to pick them up from, this is the big question,” he said.
Mr Hodgson, who has previously studied and taught in Greater Manchester, said he hoped to go as far west as possible before returning to the UK, but that his current home was Ukraine.
“This is my home – Nadia’s home – it’s her son’s home, this is somewhere we want to come back to, this is where we belong,” he said.
“Whether that’s going to be possible, I don’t know.”
