Ukrainian grandmother ‘settling in well’ after 12-day rescue from war

A Ukrainian grandmother is "settling in well" in a spare room in Cheshire after her British son-in-law spent almost two weeks rescuing her following the Russian invasion.

Michael Felton, 61, from Ellesmere Port, drove more than 1,700 miles to bring his children's 83-year-old grandmother to safety in the UK after her home came under fire during Russian air strikes.

Mr Felton said it took "some coercion" to convince his Ukrainian wife's mother Nadia, known as Babulya to her family, to leave her home in Kharkiv, north-east Ukraine, after Russia began shelling the city.

"She's pretty comfortable and happy now, I go over and put a Russian-speaking comedy show on for her that she likes to watch,” he said.

"I haven't asked her about the war, mainly because I don't want to make her think about it any more.

"She's not looking sad or tearful, or wanting to talk about what's happened... it's almost like she's just accepting it for whatever it is.”

Mr Felton said his wife of 15 years, who lives in Thailand, has spent "most of her time in tears" after her elderly mother hadbeen"preparedtodieinher own home if necessary".

He said the "frail" pensioner had been living alone and removing her hearing aids at night to block out the sound of Russian bombs.

Nadia, who can only speak Russian, eventually managed to escape Kharkiv on a bus with the young grandson of a family friend and her miniature Yorkshire terrier, called Ken.

She suffered a "horrible" fall while travelling and was left with bruises across her face before she was picked up by Mr Felton at the Polish border to begin the "exhausting" journey back to the UK.

They travelled by car across Poland before flying to Paris where they caught a train to Calais and then a ferry across the channel, arriving in Dover at 9pm on March 20.

It was there that Nadia was forced to say a "tearful" goodbye to her dog, who is spending three months in quarantine in Essex.

"It was horrible, she was very distraught and cried for a bit in the car when we drove off... you could see it was very upsetting for her," Mr Felton said.