A UKRAINIAN mother who scrawled her contact details on her child’s back before she was evacuated from the country has told the amazing story of her escape from the country.

Speaking to GB Sasha Makoviy said: “It was during the first day of war. We were preparing to flee from here and there was a lack of information about what was going on.

“We just were hearing a lot of sounds that were powerful, sounds of bombing, and we prepared for leaving.

“I realised that in case of injury there, she had this small card with her details that could be removed. That’s why I decided to put that information just right on.”

She made her comments on Breakfast with Eamonn and Isabel on GB News this morning.

Sasha said they queued for 22 hours to cross the border out of Ukraine and spent one night in a car with the engine turned off, in case the heat attracted the attention of Russian attack aircraft.

She said she crossed into Romania and then was taken to live with a family in southern France.

She spoke about the plight of friends and family: “They also escaped from Kyiv and from other cities on the border or even abroad, but they still believed that it could be ended in a few days and wanted to come back home as soon as possible.

“We escaped from Kyiv on the first day from care because under our house, there is no shelter and because it’s an island on the sand.

“There were soldiers who looked so scared that it looked like I was more prepared than they.”

She spoke today after reports that Russian troops vowed to fully capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol today.

The former head of counter-terrorism at the Ministry of Defence, Major General Chip Chapman, told GB News that a broader Russian assault in the east may be delayed for a week or more due to bad weather.