Ukrainian woman travels from Prudhoe to Poland to rescue parents

Nataliya Tkachuk goes to the visa office so her elderly mother and parents-in-law do not have to queue

A Ukrainian woman now living in north-east England has travelled to Poland to help bring her family to the UK.

Nataliya Tkachuk is trying to navigate her mother and parents-in-law through the visa application process in Rzeszow in the east of the country.

They had the necessary documentation, but the application website kept crashing, she said.

"People who are trying to apply for visas are having big problems uploading the documents," she said.

"It either shows 'page not found' or there is some kind of error.

"Two of my friends who live in the UK have been trying for three days to upload the documents and they still can't."

She welcomed the UK government's announcement it would speed up the visa application process but warned it still relied on the overwhelmed online system.

Nataliya's mother, Mariia (right), and her parents-in-law Nataliya and Tom, are all over 75

Ms Tkachuk moved to Prudhoe with her husband, Roman, 16 years ago.

The former nursing home senior care nurse said she made the decision to go to Poland as soon as the war started.

"I was just so worried about my family because the town where they live, there is a small airport which was bombarded on the first day of the fighting," she said.

"When I rang my mum I didn't know if she was alive or not.

"I think all Ukrainian people want to get their parents to England."

She arrived in Poland on Wednesday and was eventually reunited with her family, who had been waiting at the border for more than 10 hours.

"I knew then that everything would be fine," she said.

"It is such a great feeling to know that your family is not in danger."

Ms Tkachuk said being reunited with her mother was one of the best moments of her life

Ms Tkachuk said it had been hard to find accommodation in Rzeszow because so many people were in the city to apply for visas.

Her relatives had an appointment on Tuesday but she was hoping to be seen earlier because she did not know where they could stay until then.

But she saw "some hope", she said.

"If not today, if not tomorrow, we will get the visa and I will bring them to the UK where they will be safe," she said.