British father who went on mission to save his family in Ukraine may buy car and drive to safety

A British father who launched a mission to save his wife and two-year-old son from war-torn Ukraine said he may buy a second-hand car to drive them to safety because public transport is packed.

Ian Umney, 28, travelled more than 1,700 miles from St Helens in Merseyside to Nikopol in south-eastern Ukraine to be reunited with his his wife Nelia, 26, and their two-year-old son Jonathan. 

Having previously vowing to stay and fight ‘without hesitation’ if he was called upon by Ukrainian forces, former English teacher Mr Umney is now planning his escape from the country after the Russian invasion intensified. 

He said he would explore the ‘packed’ public transport options but said buying a second-hand car was a back-up plan.

Mr Umney said on TikTok: ‘There is an evacuation train rumoured to be coming through this afternoon and we are going to try and get on there.

‘But if the past trains are anything to go by it’s going to be very difficult and packed and stressful on the journey.

‘Failing that we have a coach, possibly, tomorrow so we need to get in touch and see what is going on with that.’

But he added in the TikTok video: ‘Failing that there is a car for sale in this local area.

English teacher Ian Umney, 28, has been documenting his mission to save his wife and young son from war-torn Ukraine on TikTok

Ian Umney

English teacher Ian Umney, 28, has been documenting his mission to save his wife and young son from war-torn Ukraine on TikTok

‘It’s risky, but it’s always there as a ‘Plan C’ to get out of this country. 

The English teacher, who has only ever fired a BB gun before, quickly became a TikTok sensation – with more than 200,000 subscribers tuning in for his regular travel updates – and described the ’emotionally charged’ moment he was finally reunited with his family after his 46-hour trip. 

As troops continued to advance on Ukrainian cities, Umney said on Tuesday that he had managed to book a last-minute evacuation train out of Ukraine that leaves Nikopol on March 13.  

Mr Umney travelled more than 1,700 miles from St Helens in Merseyside to Nikopol in south-eastern Ukraine to be reunited with his his wife Nelia, 26, and their two-and-a-half-year-old son Jonathan (pictured together, above)

Mr Umney travelled more than 1,700 miles from St Helens in Merseyside to Nikopol in south-eastern Ukraine to be reunited with his his wife Nelia, 26, and their two-and-a-half-year-old son Jonathan (pictured together, above) 

English teacher Ian Umney, who has only ever fired a BB gun before, had vowed to stay and fight ‘without hesitation’ if he was called upon or conscripted by Ukrainian forces

But the TikTok sensation - with more than 200,000 subscribers tuning in for his regular travel updates - now says he has arranged travel out of the country as the Russian invasion ramped up after he reached the coastal city on Tuesday

But the TikTok sensation – with more than 200,000 subscribers tuning in for his regular travel updates – now says he has arranged travel out of the country as the Russian invasion ramped up after he reached the coastal city on Tuesday

In a recent TikTok video, Ian revealed his plan was to catch a train to Lviv in the west of Ukraine.

But the family missed one of the planned evacuation trains to Dnipro.

He told his TikTok followers: ‘We’ve got a plan of exit from Ukraine. It’s all dependent on linking up to those evacuation trains in Dnipro.

‘From here we have to go to another city which has got quite some difficulties at the minute and then from there another train to Dnipro.

‘Then there is a free evacuation train.

‘We missed one today, there was one evacuation bus that left this morning from Dnipro.’

Ukraine war: The latest 

  • Fire at Europe’s biggest nuclear power station at Zaporizhzhia is put out after Ukraine accuses Russia of ‘nuclear terror’ in shelling the plant Russian troops later take the reactors 
  • Russia admits ‘limiting’ access to news websites including the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, independent Russian site Meduza and Germany’s Deutsche Welle, with Facebook blocked
  • Russian lawmakers approve legislation providing up to 15 years in jail for any publication of fake news about the Russian armed forces
  • Thirty-three people are killed as Russian forces hit residential areas, including schools, in the northern city of Chernihiv
  • Russia and Ukraine agree to create humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from cities
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow’s advance is going ‘according to plan’
  • Senior US Republican senator Lindsey Graham calls for ‘somebody in Russia’ to assassinate Putin
  • Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky calls for direct talks with Putin as the ‘only way to stop the war’
  • Russian forces take the Black Sea port of Kherson as it appears Moscow is trying to cut Ukraine’s access to the sea
  • US and EU offer temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees so far numbering more than 1million
  • Russians pack trains out of the country to Finland, fearful that it is their last chance to escape the impact of swingeing Western sanctions
  • Sanctioned Russian oil giant Lukoil calls for a halt to fighting in Ukraine, one of the first major domestic firms to speak out 
  • Russian tech giant Yandex warns it may default on its debt after it was suspended from trading on New York’s digital stock exchange
  • The China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank suspends business with Russia and Belarus in a sign of their deepening pariah status
  • Ex-Soviet states Georgia and Moldova – which borders Ukraine’s threatened south – apply to join the EU
  • The Beijing Winter Paralympics opens with Russian athletes banned

 

In later clips shared online, in which he can be seen playing with his young son, Ian adds: ‘So at the minute we have booked a direct train from here to Lviv on the 13th. That’s ten days away.

‘So what we are doing now is we are waiting to see if there is any more information that we can ascertain on moving.

‘Right now what I’m doing is going back to our family flat to tape up the windows.

‘To get a few bits and bobs packed away in the bag so its ready to go ready to bug out as and when we need it.’ 

Umney, who has lived in Ukraine for six years, had been working in Britain prior to Vladimir Putin’s invasion – leaving his family behind in the coastal city near the Russian border.  

Having initially planned to make the 1,700 mile trip by car, Umney instead chose to fly to Kraków, in Poland and documented the trip on TikTok. 

On Tuesday, Mr Umney, who quit his job as an English teacher to make the journey, posed for a heart-warming photo with Nelia and Jonathan in her parent’s apartment in the southern city of Nikopol.

The cute toddler, wearing a Paw Patrol jumper, was cradled in his father’s arms after his emotional journey.

Mr Umney beamed and could not hide his excitement at being with them again after a month apart.

He added: ‘It was a very emotionally charged moment when I saw them. My son held out his arms for me and I wept into my wife’s shoulder.

‘It was such a relief and more than worth the risk and stress of travelling. It’s been a long time. I’m finally here.’ 

But with Russian military officials yesterday claiming control of Kherson, a key crossing point of the Dneiper and just 120miles to the south-west of Nikopol, his wife’s home city could soon come under siege. 

Despite the threat of a Russian attack, Mr Umney, from St Helens, Merseyside, insisted he would remain in the city and fight if his Ukrainian wife wanted to stay.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had earlier appeared to encourage Britons choosing to sign up to fight as part of an international legion of the Ukrainian armed forces.

But lawyers later warned that Britons who fight in Ukraine could be prosecuted under UK terror laws – much like those who took arms for Kurdish militia forces against ISIS in Syria.

Yesterday Prime Minister Boris Johnson waded into the debate, warning members of the so-called ‘Lads Army’ that they could be breaking British law by going over to Ukraine to fight.

Giving a speech in Estonia, Mr Johnson said: ‘I can understand why people feel as they do but we have laws in our country about international conflicts and how they should be conducted.’ 

Asked if, in the wake of Ms Truss’s comments, that the Government was encouraging Britons to fight, he replied: ‘The UK is not actively doing any such thing.’

If Mr Umney does choose to fight, or is conscripted into the Ukrainian Armed Forces, he will be among dozens of Britons who have already volunteered to join the Ukrainian resistance.

‘One hundred per cent, I would bear arms and fight the Russians,’ he  previously said.

‘I think Nelia will want to stay in Nikopol. If she wants to stay, then I will arm myself and defend her city.’ 

The pair had a whirlwind romance after meeting while Mr Umney was on holiday in the Ukraine in 2016. 

‘We got married in January 2017. We had our son Jonathan in October 2019. I lived in the Ukraine for nearly six years, but before the invasion we had decided we would all move to the UK.

‘We spent Christmas together in the UK, then they went back to Ukraine for a bit.’ 

The former cybersecurity worker (pictured with his wife) vowed he was 'on the way to reunite with my family by whatever means'

The former cybersecurity worker (pictured with his wife) vowed he was ‘on the way to reunite with my family by whatever means’

Mr Umney beamed and could not hide his excitement at being with them again after a month apart.

On Wednesday he added: ‘It was a very emotionally charged moment when I saw them. My son held out his arms for me and I wept into my wife’s shoulder.

‘It was such a relief and more than worth the risk and stress of travelling. It’s been a long time. I’m finally here.’

He made the decision to travel from the UK to Nikopol after Russian soldiers moved in last Friday.

He jetted from Manchester to Krakow in Poland on Sunday before catching a train to Lviv in his wife’s homeland on Monday.

Following heavy delays and cancellations on the railways he then caught another overnight train to Nikopol.

Exhausted, he finally got to his wife’s home city at lunchtime yesterday where he saw her and their little boy. 

‘It’s been heartbreaking being without my family,’ he said.

‘But it’s quite exhilarating to be on a journey to see them. I feel like I’ve achieved something.’

He added: ‘We are going to spend some time together. We have been apart for a month. I last saw them on February 5.

‘We need to make a sensible decision about what we are going to do next for the three of us. My family back home said it’s too dangerous and it’s too risky.’  

Fire-damaged buildings at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear complex are pictured on Friday morning after coming under attack by Russian forces overnight, leading to international condemnation

Fire-damaged buildings at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear complex are pictured on Friday morning after coming under attack by Russian forces overnight, leading to international condemnation 

Sparks erupt from an administration building (bottom right) as a live steam video shot from a larger office block behind it films Russian tanks opening fire on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the early hours of Friday morning

Sparks erupt from an administration building (bottom right) as a live steam video shot from a larger office block behind it films Russian tanks opening fire on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the early hours of Friday morning

Mr Umney’s attempts to evacuate from Ukraine come after Russian troops seized Europe’s largest nuclear power plant – sparking a fire at the Zaporizhzhia plant.

After a firefight that set part of the complex ablaze with President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Putin of resorting to ‘nuclear terror’ and risking a catastrophe ‘six times worse than Chernobyl’ that would affect the whole continent.

Russian troops attacked the nuclear power plant in the early hours of Friday, with CCTV capturing a fierce gun battle between Putin’s men and Ukrainian defenders that sparked a fire in a six-storey training building just outside the main complex.

Moscow’s men then stopped firefighters getting to the building for several hours as fighting raged.

source: dailymail.co.uk