British couples are trapped in Ukraine due to newborn babies not having PASSPORTS after Foreign Office urged UK nationals to escape as Russian invasion looms
- British nationals have been urged to leave Ukraine amid Russian invasion fears
- But at least three British families are stuck in Ukraine waiting for documentation
- Ken Stewart, 54, is waiting for his wife Tania, 36, to be discharged from hospital
- Ben Garratt and his wife Alice are waiting for documentation for surrogate baby
- Daniel Williams, 45, is also waiting for a passport for his four-month old child
British nationals are trapped in Ukraine waiting for passports to be issued for their newborn babies, amid mounting fears of a Russian invasion.
The government has urged all British citizens to evacuate the country, with Armed Forces minister James Heappey saying today that the RAF would not be carrying out evacuations in the event of war in Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO.
While many of the 6,000 Britons in Ukraine have already fled via air or west into Poland, Ken Stewart, 54, and his wife Tania, 36, are stranded as their baby Douglas does not yet have a passport, according to The Mirror.
Douglas was born weighing 9lbs by cesarean section, and he and his mother are in a Kyiv hospital. Mr Stewart, originally from Edinburgh, and his family now face an anxious wait to see if they can get out in time.
Meanwhile, Ben Garratt and his wife Alice – both from Queen’s Park in London – are also trapped waiting for their surrogate-born baby to receive documentation.
The couple moved to Kyiv in December where their son was born thanks to the ‘very different surrogacy laws’ in Ukraine that allow for a swifter IVF and surrogacy process.
Mr Garratt said he and his wife are growing increasingly concerned after the Foreign Office updated its advice on Friday evening to encourage UK nationals to leave.
Another British man – Daniel Williams, 45 – who is originally from the Isle of Wight and now lives in Kyiv as a business investor, has a four-month-old daughter with his Ukrainian wife. They are also stuck in the country, he has said.
Ken Stewart, 54, and his wife Tania, 36, (pictured together) are stranded as their baby Douglas does not yet have a passport, according to The Mirror
Ben Garratt, and his wife Alice – both from Queen’s Park in London – are also trapped waiting for their surrogate-born baby to receive documentation
‘Our plan was to leave but we are in a difficult situation since we do not yet have Douglas’ birth certificate,’ Mr Stewart told The Mirror on Saturday.
He said that the process can take up to two weeks. The United States has warned that Russia could launch an invasion as early as Wednesday.
‘I am waiting until they come home and then I think we may leave and head west, where Tania has relatives,’ he told the newspaper. ‘So I will stay here for a day or so and see what happens and then try and get away just to be safe.’
Mr Stewart called the situation ‘bizarre’, saying that it was ‘strange’ that Russia had appeared to be telegraphing an invasion for months.
Kremlin officials have consistently denied a plan to invade, despite a build up of as many as 130,000 troops on its borders with Ukraine.
Mr Garratt said that he and his wife have had to make sure they can be ready to leave with newborn Raphael ‘as soon as possible.’
The father, who works in stakeholder engagement at London North Eastern Railway, said he and his wife are growing increasingly concerned after the Foreign Office updated its advice on Friday evening to encourage UK nationals to leave.
‘If we take the advice at face value, it means the UK and also the US government are worried that Russian action is imminent – that makes us want to get out.’
At first, he said he and his wife were waiting for a British passport to be issued for their son, but now they are trying to get their hands of emergency travel documents.
Ben Garratt with baby Raphael
‘It’s getting frustrating because we’re being told by the UK government to leave the country… and we still don’t have the document we need,’ he added.
‘We’re essentially stuck in Ukraine until we can get the required British paperwork to allow our son, born here, to leave,’ Mr Garratt said.
‘When we first arrived, that meant getting him a British passport – but given the current situation, it means getting him an emergency travel document.
‘It’s getting frustrating because we’re being told by the UK Government to leave the country… and we still don’t have the document we need.’
Mr Garratt is due to have an interview with the passport office in Kyiv next week to provide proof of his son’s British citizenship.
‘They want to do a two-hour phone interview with me, but that’s not until Wednesday,’ he said.
‘It is bizarre, but I think it’s based around the normal assumption that the people applying for an emergency travel document, perhaps, are already definitely British and maybe they’ve just lost their passport somewhere, as opposed to being a newborn baby who needs to go through that process.’
Mr Garratt said much of their fears revolve around making sure they have ticked every box required on Raphael’s paperwork.
‘There’s always the worry that we’ve missed something or, you know, I’ve got a large folder and lots of bits of paper I’ve taken colour copies of, and there’s always the worry that we’ve missed something.
‘The key individuals we’ve been talking to in the Government and outside the government have been really helpful and very reassuring, but it’s the bureaucratic processes that add concern and frustration.’
Daniel Williams, 45, has a four-month-old daughter with his Ukrainian wife.
Mr Williams’ wife has a valid travel visa, but their baby does not yet have a British passport or a Ukrainian passport to get to the UK by commercial means.
Daniel Williams, 45, who is originally from the Isle of Wight and now lives in Kyiv as a business investor, has a four-month-old daughter with his Ukrainian wife
‘We are waiting on the UK Embassy to issue a passport for my daughter so we can follow their own ‘urgent’ advice,’ Mr Williams said.
‘Telling citizens to get out in 48 hours but then telling them to apply via the website for their passport (is) utter nonsense.
‘It is ridiculous that the bureaucrats won’t actually do anything to help the citizens whose taxes pay their wages.’
He maintains that he and his family are ‘100 percent stuck’ in Ukraine until they can get a passport for their daughter.
‘It is all on the so-called ’emergency’ issuance department,’ Mr Williams explained. ‘We are 100% stuck until we can get travel documents.’
Mr Williams also admitted to being frustrated about the process of getting their daughter a UK passport and added their plans ‘entirely depend’ on getting a response from the passport office ‘other than a nonsense autoreply’.
A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said in a statement: ‘We are doing everything we can to support all British families with surrogacy arrangements in Ukraine at this time.
‘Her Majesty’s Passport Office (HMPO) have sped up the process of issuing passports in Ukraine to support British families get the right documentation to allow them to return to the UK.’
Back in the UK, according to a student who landed in London on one of the first commercial flights out of Kyiv since the warning, the call for Britons to flee caused ‘quite a panic’ and a rush to return home.
Passengers arrived at Gatwick Airport, south of London, on a direct flight from the Ukrainian capital shortly after noon on Saturday, just hours after the Foreign Office warned UK nationals in the country, thought to number in the low thousands, to ‘leave now while commercial means are still available’.
Those returning suggested there were mixed signals about the level of concern in the country about the threat of war.
Relieved: Paul Meakin, his wife Svetlana and their daughter (pictured left) arrive at Gatwick from Kiev, Ukraine, after being urged to leave the country amid mounting tensions with Russia. Pictured right: Haider Ali, 21, from Birmingham, is all smiles as he arrives safe and sound at Gatwick from Ukraine, where he studies at a medical university
Ukraine Will Resist! 5,000 march through Kiev warning Putin of bloody consequences if his massive army invades
Traffic in the city ground to a halt as the anti-war rally snaked its way from Shevchenko Park to the historic Maidan Square, birthplace of the 2014 revolution. (Pictured: Demonstrators hold up sign reading: ‘Ukrainians will resist’)
By Nick Craven in Kiev, Ukraine, for MailOnline
More than 5,000 people defiantly marched through the centre of Kiev behind a huge banner proclaiming ‘Ukraine Will Resist’.
Traffic in the city ground to a halt as the anti-war rally snaked its way from Shevchenko Park to the historic Maidan Square, birthplace of the 2014 revolution.
Protesters of all ages, many draped in yellow and blue Ukrainian flags, chanted ‘Ukraine, united, will never be defeated’ and one banner described Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a ‘mass murderer’ and a ‘war criminal’. Another said simply ‘#sayNOtoPutin’
Leading the march, Illia Kononov of the Capitulation Resistance Movement, told MailOnline: ‘So many people have turned out to show their support for Ukraine and to tell the world that we don’t want war, but if it comes – we will fight back.
‘We also want to thank all the countries such as the UK which have supported us morally and given us weapons to deter the Russians.
‘Personally I don’t think Putin will invade, but if he does, he should know that Ukraine will fight to the last man and woman.’
The march halted at Maidan and the protestors sang the Ukrainian national anthem beneath flags fluttering in the chilly wind.
Students Aleksey, 17, and his 18-year-old girlfriend Elvira, said they had come to show their support for their country at a time of need.
‘Russia has so many problems of its own, so why are they planning to cause problems in our country,’ said IT student Aleksey.
Physics student Elvira added: ‘When I think about what might happen in the next few days or weeks, I’m scared, but it’s good to see so many people coming out to make their feelings known – it would not be so easy to do this in Russia because they don’t have the freedoms we have.’
Another marcher, Andreii, 34, who had fought in the Ukrainian army in Donbas for three years, said he was now ‘seriously worried’ about the situation.
‘When I heard that the US and UK governments were telling their people to return home, it made me think this was actually going to happen,’ he said.
‘But we are home, and that means we can’t run away anywhere – we have to stand and fight.’
Woman holds up picture seemingly comparing Putin to former dictators Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, during an anti-war rally in Kiev on Saturday
*Britain’s Ambassador to Ukraine has pledged to remain at her post, despite the Foreign Office advising Britons to leave the country now over fears that a Russian invasion is imminent.
Melinda Simmons will continue to run the Embassy in Kyiv with a skeleton staff while most colleagues are expected to fly home over the weekend.
She tweeted: ‘I am staying in Kyiv and continue to work there with a core team. The embassy remains operational.’
The news came as the Russian Embassy also sent most staff home, which observers were interpreting as another clear sign that Putin intends to take offensive action against his weaker neighbour.
Haider Ali said: ‘I’d been in two minds about coming back because of the advice coming out by the British Embassy, about the amber alert, red alert.
‘A lot of people, a lot of students were waiting for the red alert, and it happened yesterday.
‘Once that happened, everybody booked their tickets and left as soon as possible.’
The 21-year-old from Birmingham said his university, the Dnipro Medical Institute in Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine, had advised students to ‘get out as soon as you can’.
He said around half the students at the university are British.
The UK and other Nato countries have urged their citizens to leave as fears grow that Russian President Vladimir Putin could order an invasion in the coming days.
Mr Ali said: ‘I think the main thing that people were getting worried about as well is, because it’s along the Dnieper River, a lot of the people were saying, if Putin wants to suffocate Kyiv, push his warships along that path as well.’
The student said he had paid £210 for his one-way flight ticket and thought prices would get much more expensive over the next three days as more people rush out of the country.
He said he was hoping to return to Ukraine by June to continue his studies.
Mr Ali said Ukrainians’ opinions were split on the likelihood of a Russian incursion, but that the perception that Western media were blowing the crisis out of proportion was changing.
He said: ‘The Ukrainians are generally very laissez-faire as in terms of people, but the last couple of days they’ve started to get worried.
‘And when that happens, alarm bells should be ringing.’
Another British citizen arriving at Gatwick on the same plane said Ukrainians did not seem worried.
Paul Meakin, 51, from Poole in Dorset, his Ukrainian-British wife Svetlana, 36, and their daughter, who had spent a week in Ukraine to attend a funeral, said most passengers on their flight had been Ukrainian, not British.
Asked about people’s attitudes there, the IT company chief said: ‘You wouldn’t even know. They don’t care, that’s what came across.’
That sentiment was echoed by Ukrainian Pasha Honcharuk, 24, from Kyiv, who said he was ‘not too worried’ and that he would have stayed home if it were not for work in the UK.
He said: ‘All news channels tell that there will be war but I don’t think so.’
But a Ukrainian business analyst, who did not want to be named, told PA that ‘of course everybody’s worried’ about the threat of war.
But she said this had not influenced her pre-existing decision to move to London from Kyiv for work.
UK nationals in Ukraine are being urged by the Foreign Office to ‘leave now while commercial means are still available’.
Armed Forces minister James Heappey warned Russia is in a position to be able to attack ‘very, very quickly’, with an estimated 130,000 troops on Ukraine’s border.
But unlike when the Taliban seized Kabul, Mr Heappey stressed that the RAF would not be carrying out evacuations in the event of war in Ukraine.
Mr Heappey told BBC Breakfast: ‘We are now confident that the artillery systems, the missile systems and the combat air are all in place that would allow Russia to launch – at no notice – an attack on Ukraine.
‘And on that basis I think it is our responsibility to share with UK citizens our view that they should leave the country immediately while commercial means are still available.
‘There will be a big difference between what they may have seen on their TV screens in Afghanistan over the summer and what may happen over the next week or so and that is that the Royal Air Force will not be in a position to go in and to fly people out so they need to leave now by commercial means or drive out of Ukraine into a neighbouring country.’
British ambassador to Ukraine Melinda Simmons was remaining with a ‘core team’ in Kyiv, but some embassy staff and their families were being withdrawn.
The Foreign Office’s order to flee was issued as intelligence and advice from experts on the ground suggested an increased threat level, with an invasion at some point deemed highly likely, PA understands.
Thousands of British, American and other European citizens – including many embassy staff – have now been told to get out of Ukraine while they still can, as they were warned there would be no military evacuation in the wake of a Russian attack. (Pictured: Hurricane rocket launcher during Russian-Belarusian drill on Saturday)
Pictured: Helicopter fires missiles beneath clear blue skies during a Russian-Belarusian joint military drill on Saturday
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said an invasion could come ‘at any time’, while US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said an attack before the end of the Winter Olympics on February 20 is a ‘credible prospect’.
Western leaders have threatened Moscow with a damaging package of sanctions in the event of a further incursion into Ukrainian soil.
Ukraine is not a Nato member and allies in the defence alliance have said they would not join fighting in Ukraine, but have bolstered forces in neighbouring nations and are threatening widespread sanctions.
Though the Kremlin insists it is not planning an invasion, US intelligence suggests Russia could fabricate a ‘false flag’ pretext to attack.
Mr Heappey told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the UK personnel sent to train Ukrainians to use British-supplied anti-tank missiles will be ‘leaving over the course of the weekend’.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said an invasion could come ‘at any time’, while US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said an attack before the end of the Winter Olympics on February 20 is a ‘credible prospect’.
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