Kyiv teacher uses school bus to evacuate 14 staff from city

Teacher Paul Hodgson said Ukraine was now his home

A British man who teaches in Kyiv has helped evacuate 14 colleagues from the Ukraine capital.

Paul Hodgson, from Washington, Tyne and Wear, but now living in Kyiv with his fiancée, has been using a school bus to take fellow staff from the International School across the border.

He said since the weekend he had driven about 2,000km (1,240 miles) in a return trip to Chisinau in Moldova.

He said it had been "a tough time" but "good humour" had got them through it.

The school bus has covered more than 1,200 miles (2,000km), taking staff from the school across the Ukraine border

Mr Hodgson said he did not think about his actions as bravery, adding "you're just doing what you're doing from day to day".

"It's chaotic at best - it's a fluid situation all the time," he said.

"You don't know what's going to happen, you don't know how things are going to change when you get to where you're going.

"Things change in a heartbeat - it's about adapting to what's in front of you and doing what you need to."

'Left everything behind'

He has moved from capital with his fiancee Nadia and her mother to Ternopil in the west of Ukraine and added he wanted to stay in the country.

"This is where my home is - this is where my family is, it's as simple as that," he said.

"We've left our home [in Kyiv], we've left everything behind but we're looking to get back to our home as quickly as possible and start rebuilding things.

"We're following the news and watching what's going on every day."

Paul Hodgson lived in Kyiv with his fiancée Nadia

Although there have been missile strikes on Ternopil, Mr Hodgson said it felt safer.

"It doesn't feel so dangerous but we're still huddling in the bathroom when the air-raid sirens go off," he said.

"You are constantly aware that something's not right - even though most of the action is on the other side of the country - but at any point it could be here pretty soon.

"We've been ringing round to see what the next steps could be… we may move nearer the border but that will be a last resort."