Prudhoe couple reunited with parents who fled Ukraine

Nataliya's mother and Roman's parents arrive at Newcastle Airport

A Ukrainian couple from Northumberland have been reunited with family after they secured visas to travel to the UK.

Nataliya Tkachuk travelled from her home in Prudhoe to Poland to help her mother and parents-in-law navigate the application website which crashed.

Ms Tkachuk moved to the town with her husband, Roman, 16 years ago, and they have two sons.

"I can go upstairs and speak to them at any minute - it's an amazing feeling to know our family are safe," she said.

The former nursing home senior care nurse said she made the decision to go to Poland as soon as the war started, and met her family who had been waiting at the border for more than 10 hours.

She went to the visa office in Rzeszow in the east of the country so her elderly mother and parents-in-law did not have to queue.

Although they had the correct documentation the UK visa website kept crashing.

The family sit and watch and the news about the war from safety in Northumberland

Following a 10-day wait for a visa Ms Tkachuk's mother, Mariia, and her parents-in-law Nataliya and Tom, who are all aged over 75, arrived at Newcastle airport on Sunday.

It is the first time Ms Tkachuk's in-laws have left Ukraine, where they saw their home town bombed.

Roman greets the family at Newcastle airport

"It definitely doesn't feel like a month, it feels like a year because every day we are checking the news all the time, Facebook all the time

"Seeing what's happening - it's very hard to watch but you can't not watch it.

"It's such a relief, I can't even explain how big a relief it is - that I know that nothing is going to happen to them, not today, not tomorrow, not the day after, whatever happens they are here, they are next to me."

Ms Tkachuk said she wakes up every morning with the hope that the war will be over.

"Unfortunately it's not yet - but fingers crossed."