Heartbreaking moment little girl sobs as she’s forced to leave dad behind after fleeing home in Ukraine

SHE is too young to understand the full horror unfolding on the streets where she once played.

But the pain of fleeing war is etched across her tiny face and fills the tears now cascading down her cheeks.

For now, this tent at a makeshift refugee camp on the Polish border of Przemysl is home for her and thousands more.

She fled with her mum as Russian forces invaded Ukraine from the east, north and south without warning.

A hastily packed yellow rucksack is filled with all she owns and a pink coat her only protection from the cold.

Her stolen goodbye with her dad who stayed to fight for her freedom is now among the final heartbreaking images in her mind’s eye.

A gruelling journey by car and then by foot followed as they made their way to the border amid an uncertain future.

She is among over 500,000 mostly women and children who escaped Ukraine as Russian forces unleashed hell.

They have arrived at the 300-mile long Polish border by any means necessary — car, bus, train and on foot.

Most have dumped cars along the border road to walk the final 25 miles, weighed down by suitcases and wracked with fear.

A gruelling 24-hour queue to the border awaits, without food, water and shelter. This is not the end, but the start of their nightmare.

Up to five million are expected to leave Ukraine in the biggest movement of people since the World War Two.

Ukrainian model Vladislava Zaichenko was among those who arrived at Przemysl train station. She fled as the bombs hit Kharkiv and is now heading to London to start a new life.

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The 22-year-old fled her home last Thursday and has so far travelled over 1,250 miles.

Yesterday, as she arrived in Poland, she gave a victory salute.
Wrapped in a blanket and clutching a warm drink, Vladislava told The Sun: “I didn’t want to leave but we had no choice. It’s so difficult — especially with the bombing in Kharkiv.

“What Putin is doing to my country is disgusting. He’s an animal.

“I’ve travelled the width of Ukraine. And as we made our way to safety Putin was killing innocent civilians.

“He’s not fighting the government — he is fighting Ukrainian people. Our brothers and husbands.

“You don’t want to wake up in this world when you understand your family is staying there in a crazy s*** place and everywhere there is f***ing Russian army.”

Tens of thousands have come through this tiny transport hub over the last few days. Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 are not allowed to leave and must stay to fight for their homeland.

Injured Olya, 33, was evacuated from her hospital bed in Kyiv. She was wheeled into the station before being lifted onto a train bound for Kracow, Poland, for treatment.

She said: “Kyiv is under attack. There are bombs going off, gun fire and air raid sirens.

“Rockets are going overhead. It was very hard to leave. I found it incredibly stressful but I couldn’t stay.

“It was the first time I left the hospital. I would have stayed but I was up all night, scared.

“Bombs were being dropped on buildings just 1km up the road from where I was.”

She joined hundreds of refugees on a packed train as Ukrainian men on another platform prepared to return to Lviv to fight.

One man kissed his wife before grabbing his rucksack and heading off to war.

Another told The Sun: “I am not scared. All Ukrainian men are leaving their jobs in Poland and heading home to fight. I will die for my country. F*** Putin. We will crush him.”

Halyna Wright, 39, fled Odesa last Thursday with son Kyrylo, nine, when the invasion began and finally made it to Wroclaw, Poland, on Sunday.

Her husband Mark lives in Basildon, Essex, and she hopes to join him.

'HARD JOURNEY'

She said: “The journey was very hard and it’s still winter — there was snow. There were mothers with children, one, two years old, some even less. It was just terrible.

“While we walked, we saw so many times people left their baggage. They were so tired, they didn’t have the energy, so just left it.”

Yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said more than 200,000 fleeing Ukranians will be offered refuge in Britain.

Grannies, children under 18 and siblings of Britons and Ukrainians in the UK will be allowed safe entry.

The PM also announced those fleeing will be able to seek sanctuary if they get sponsored by charities, businesses or British citizens.

The UN’s refugee agency says that about 660,000 people have arrived in neighbouring Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Moldova.

Speaking in Poland, the PM said 1,000 British squaddies are on standby to help with the flood of people.

Announcing the new scheme he said: “We are extending the family scheme so very considerable numbers would be eligible — you could be talking about a couple of hundred thousand, maybe more.”

Home Secretary Priti Patel called for a “national effort” to offer sanctuary.

She told MPs both the family route and sponsorship route would allow Ukrainians to live and work in Britain for a year.