Surrogate babies caught up in a warzone as British families wait to bring them home

ITV News Correspondent Martha Fairlie reports on the fate of Ukraine's surrogate babies waiting for parents to bring them home

Once a major hub for international surrogacy, Ukraine's surrogate babies are now stranded in a warzone.

One Kyiv surrogacy clinic has 21 new babies facing an uncertain future as they wait for their intended parents.

Born in a warzone, they have spent their first few weeks in a makeshift nursery underground, cared for by a team of nannies.

Before Russia's invasion, people from around the world flew there to take their babies home. Now parents must decide whether or not to make the perilous journey into a warzone to reach them.

Joanna Fields, from Tamworth, travelled to Kyiv last year to see the ultrasound of her unborn twins and hear their heartbeats for the first time.

Her surrogate, who lives in the south of Ukraine with her own young family, is now 29 weeks pregnant and Fields intends to do everything she can to get to them.

"I've been advised - obviously - against travel into Ukraine but I'll do everything that I can to get there, to be with her when she gives birth and to be there with my babies to bring them home," she told ITV News.

"I'm terrified, absolutely terrified, but it's something I will do," Fields said. "I'm going to do it for her and I'm going to do it for my babies."

The Home Office has changed immigration rules to make it easier for babies or pregnant surrogates to come to the UK and some couples have been able to get their newborns to safety.

One family in north London brought their baby home from Ukraine just days before Russia invaded.

Ben Garrett, Raphael's dad, said him and his wife "feel incredibly grateful to the Ukrainians that made that possible."

Garret said the couple were "really lucky" Raphael was born when they were safe to travel to Ukraine.

Fertility lawyer Natalie Gamble is helping 29 British families expecting surrogate babies from Ukraine.

"These are babies that have been waited for for a very long time," she told ITV News. "No one expected to find themselves in the position they're now in.

Gamble said the families she is helping are all "desperately worried and desperately frightened" about the safety of their surrogates and their babies.