An emotional Ayr shop owner has told how her family are hiding in an underground bunker fearing for their lives in Ukraine.
Olga Stewart (Milchenko) has been crying and praying for her parents, sister and brother-in-law and their five-year-old daughter who narrowly escaped an undetonated bomb on Wednesday.
The owner of Olga’s Alterations in Newmarket Street originally from the city of Sumy in Ukraine says her family are too afraid to go outside — as an onslaught of explosions shake the ground above their tiny shelter near the capital Kyiv.
An exhausted Olga, 51, told Ayrshire Live: “I cry every day, my family have no escape, they are stuck in Ukraine. There is no way out for them.
“I speak to them every morning, my mum and sister, they can’t move at all — they can’t even go outside, it's not safe enough.
“There is no internet connection so I have to phone every day.
“My sister is so scared, she fears she and her family will be found and killed.
“They have bombs going off near them, the ground shakes all the time and they are constantly panicking.”
Olga’s sister Lyudmila, 46, and brother-in-law, Krill, 42, and their daughter Margo, 5, are trapped in a freezing underground shelter that is close by to their home in Kyiv which they had to flee last week as war broke out.
Their son Vlad, 28, is living in an underground car park in the capital city being rocked by the Russian siege.
Meanwhile Olga’s mum Maria, 73, has to dive into her bath to take cover amidst intense gunfire and shelling, while her dad Edward, 74, is hiding in a cellar in Sumy close to the Russian border.
Olga has revealed the horrific conditions her sister and their young family are stuck in.
The petrified parents are trying to keep their child safe in an underground basement which is only 1.5 metres high and is too small for anyone to stand up, with temperatures plummeting to -7 degrees.
The tight space is starved of oxygen with one door being opened carefully at different points to let air in.
Mum-of-two Olga said: “It is just a terrible situation, they are so scared.
“My sister is stuck underground with her five-year-old child.
“They used to stay in Kyiv but they had to run away when the war started — they were offered shelter by people who were helping.
“The basement is only around 1.5 metres high and no one can stand up — there is no space, it is -7 degrees and they hardly have any oxygen.
“It is a basement used for the storage of potatoes, it is cold even in the summer, there is no flooring in the basement, it is just concrete walls.
Olga has told how she and her son Taras Milchenko tried to get her sister, niece and nephew out of the country as war loomed but were agonisingly two days late.
Olga said: “I sent an invitation before the war to come here and be safe but now it’s too late.
“Before you could drive to the border of Poland but now it is not safe.
"I just hope and pray this ends and they get out safe.
Taras, 33, now lives in Kent but is in daily contact with his mum in Ayr and family stranded in the conflict.
Taras, who went to school in Kilmarnock, left Ayr and went in 2009 and also grew up in Sumy, is worried for his dad who is also cowering for his life in an underground bunker.
His dad Eugene, 57, has mobility issues and had it not been for childhood friends of Taras he could have starved.
He said: “All of our family out there are in immediate danger.
“There is a lot of resistance from Ukraine so the Russians are just shelling not just the Ukrainian military but civilians as well.
“Every hour, every two hours there is an air raid warning and people have to rush to the nearest shelter.
“My gran has had to stay at home as she has not been able to get into the bunker in time, she is in her 70s and the nearest one is too far away.
“Instead she hides in the bath when the alarms go off.
“My dad has mobility issues — he cannot walk or carry a lot of things.
“When the war started he was left with very little food. Through my friends I managed to get help to him.
“They managed to get him eggs and live chickens, he is okay now but he never ate anything for two days.”
Taras added: “I have cried for a long time hoping that they will be left behind the frontline and it will move on somewhere else but that hasn’t happened.
“I am praying they at least get a break and they can come out and enjoy the fresh spring air.
“My thoughts and prayers are with them all."
Olga who has lived in Ayr for 14 years and had her shop for 12 has praised the support of the community after she has received flowers and gifts from kind customers.
She added: "I cry at every customer who comes in to offer their support.
"They have been great, asking me if I need anything . Some people leave money, flowers and chocolates."
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