The family of three, including a 68-year-old grandmother and an eight-year-old girl, had fled their home in Kharkov, facing some of the heaviest Russian bombings, and waited more than two weeks to obtain UK visas. They traveled 800 miles to Warsaw Airport in Poland, where they were to fly to London as part of the British Government’s Homes for Ukraine program. Vira Rybalchenko, 68, had lost her passport during the evacuation, but received assurances from the British embassy that she would be allowed to travel because she had a hard copy.
