Ukraine War: British father's hopes of taking son back to Ukraine

Ian Umney, pictured with his son, managed to raise the cash to buy a car after the clip went viral

A father who used TikTok Live to raise £2,000 for a car to get his family out of war-torn Ukraine has said he hopes to return to the country one day.

Ian Umney, his wife Nelia, and son, four, have lived in Liverpool since March 2022.

The 30-year-old said he wanted his son to know the land he was born in.

Speaking ahead of the second anniversary of the war, he said he wanted him to know he that although he is British, he is "Ukrainian first".

Mr Umney - who moved to Ukraine in 2016 but returned to the UK for work in 2021 - said his "world fell apart" when he received a call from his wife on 24 February 2022 telling him of the invasion.

"My initial thought was 'I need to get them', and I was desperate to get out the country to at least try and get towards them."

Mr Umney said he managed to raise the cash to buy a car after his TikTok Live clip went viral.

"It was quite hairy at that point, and getting out was a stroke of luck," he said.

"I didn't know if we would make it out, my wife was too scared to leave and I had to really convince her - that was the most difficult part.

"Making it out and getting back to the UK has been the best thing for [my son] Jonathan."

Mr Umney's wife and son were in living in the southern city of Nikopol when the war broke out

He returned to the UK with his family after a car ride of over 30 hours.

He said: "We fully intend to return [to Ukraine] when it is safe for us to do so and we would like to go back to our home in Nikopol, which at the minute isn't feasible for safety reasons."

More than 10,000 civilians have been killed and about 20,000 injured since Russia invaded Ukraine, the UN said.

Mr Umney described the situation as "depressing".

"It's depressing to think we're two years into a war that didn't need to happen and doesn't need to go on," he said.

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