British man drives 1,300 miles across Europe to rescue Ukrainian wife and cat

The British husband of a Ukrainian woman stranded in her own country has driven his van more than 1,300 miles across Europe in the hope of rescuing her and her cat Lucky.

Steve Lucas, 65, from Magor, Wales, said he jumped in his battered Citroen van after his Kyiv-based wife, Anastasia, 51, sent him pictures of the burning skyline around her apartment and told him she was too terrified to run to a bomb shelter.

She had been forced to stay in the city until the war broke out due to UK immigration rules, Mr Lucas said, but they could soon be reunited following moves to relax visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees.

The 65-year-old drove non-stop for nearly 24 hours through France, Belgium, Germany and most of Poland before stopping for the night as he approached the border, MailOnline reports.

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On Sunday he had crossed into Ukraine and now hopes to reach the western city of Lviv, where his wife has since managed to flee to.

Mr Lucas, a floor-fitter and part-time chef, said: ‘I had told her to try and get to Poland a few weeks ago but she wanted to stay and held on until Friday but by then things were getting a little bit hairy.

‘She sent me a photo of the skyline and there were flames everywhere, the building across the road was on fire and she said her apartment was shaking all the time. She was terrified and frantic to leave.

Kyiv has largely been under a nightly curfew in which residents were urged to spend nights in subway stations and basement complexes while Russian bombers hit the city.

Thousands more civilians fled under Russian shelling this weekend as Putin’s troops prepare to storm the city, but many face treacherous conditions on the roads.

Mr Lucas continued: ‘I’m glad I told her to put tape across the windows because she said they just kept rattling all the time. She was too scared to go to the shelter and spent every raid on her own in the flat.

‘Her friend told her that every time she ran for the shelter she was dodging dead bodies on the road and she couldn’t face doing that.’

Anastasia eventually found a taxi driver who would take her to a train station where she boarded one of the few services still running out of the city.

She was ‘adamant’ not to leave without her cat, said Mr Lucas, who has loaded his van with food, litter and a bed for the pet.

The pair met and got married while the Brit was working in Ukraine five years ago, but she was unable to return with him due to immigration rules, the 65-year-old added.

He told the Mail: ‘It meant that every few weeks I would go out there and meet her but then when Covid came along we weren’t able to see each other for almost a year.

‘The plan now is to get her back to Britain and see if we can sort out her visa – I’m just hoping we don’t get any bother when we drive back through Dover.’

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