After being bombed, mother and son head for Scotland but are trapped in red tape

After seven days hunkered in her shelled, blacked-out home near Kyiv, Oksana Chub managed to flee Ukraine with her two-year-old son.

Now, they are among the desperate refugees entangled in red tape as she tries to reach her brother in Scotland.

She escaped with son Oleksii to Poland from Bucha, a small town north-west of Kyiv, and hopes to join her brother Yevgen, who has lived here for seven years.

After queuing for seven hours, she applied for her visa on Wednesday but yesterday was still waiting to hear from the Home Office. Yevgen said: “She is feeling anxious because she just wants to find somewhere to settle after everything that has happened to her and her family.”

Chub, her husband Yurii Popchenko and son Oleksii had been living in Bucha, which has come under heavy bombardment since the start of the war, is encircled by the Russian army and partly occupied. It is without power and supplies.

Yevgen said: “They were stuck in a flat without electricity and light for seven days, unable to go outside. Fortunately they had some batteries and were able to charge their phones. They sent us messages every two or three hours just to let us know they’re alive. I was so happy when they were able to leave the city.

“A lot of Russian troops are occupying Busha. They are occupying the top floor of a multi-storey building and have a base in the nursery. They have held a couple of hundred people as hostages but have been letting some of them go.”

Chub and Popchenko drove for three days to reach refuge in Poland. However, Popchenko returned as Ukrainian men aged 18-60 are banned from leaving the country in anticipation they may be called to fight.

On reaching the UK processing centre for visa applications in Warsaw, Chub queued for seven hours to have her biometrics taken on Wednesday. She is currently staying with a friend in the city of Lublin, a two-hour drive from Warsaw.

Yevgen said: “Oskana was lucky she had someone to stay with. A lot of Ukrainians have come to Poland not knowing anyone and not having anywhere to stay.”

Yevgen now hopes that his sister and her son can live with his family in Glasgow. He said: “The past few weeks have been very difficult. Seeing her again will be the happiest day of this year for me.”