Brother cared for by sister in Maidenhead after fleeing Ukraine

Nataliia (left) said Viktor has now started school in Maidenhead after fleeing Kyiv after war erupted

A Ukrainian nanny has described the struggle of getting her teenage brother to the UK while their family remains in their home country.

Nataliia Kolodii, from Maidenhead, Berkshire, is now caring for 15-year-old Viktor after he fled to Poland alone from his home in Kyiv.

He has started school in the UK but their parents and grandmother remain in the city as war rages.

Ms Kolodii said it was "impossible to explain" how she feels.

Their parents made a "spontaneous" decision to allow Viktor to leave the Ukrainian capital after the war started but "didn't know where he was going or with whom he was travelling", Ms Kolodii said.

He crossed the Polish border for Warsaw with strangers who pretended he was their nephew.

And after staying with relatives in the Polish capital, he eventually travelled to the UK when Ms Kolodii, 37, secured a visa for him.

She said Viktor has settled into life in Berkshire and has now started school and making friends.

They keep in contact with their parents and her grandmother by sending them videos of them in and around Maidenhead.

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She said: "Showing the simple things makes a huge difference.

"They're locked in a box, in a house, watching the news to find out the situation but I think by sending videos, it makes them feel different, [it shows] a different reality, from a normal, peaceful world."

Ms Kolodii told BBC Radio Berkshire: "Every day I call my parents and, thank God, there's no bombing any more but I used to hear it all the time and while I was talking to Mum.

"Even during the conversation, I feared they would be the last words she would say. The bombing was very, very loud.

"I would hear it on the phone and sometimes we talked and Mum would say 'wait' because there was bombing and she tried to listen if something was coming, to explode.

"I'm happy they don't hear that any more."