Manchester man desperately trying to leave Ukraine after visiting his girlfriend in Kyiv

A Manchester man is being forced to make a desperate dash to flee Ukraine after risking his life to visit his girlfriend.

Jeremy Myers, 44, has split his time between his home city and Kyiv, where his Ukrainian partner lives, since 2018.

Instead of flying into Kyiv to visit his Ukrainian partner Maria Romanenko for Valentine's Day, the couple decided to meet in Poland due to the threat of a Russian invasion.

After spending nine days in Gdansk Jeremy, known as Jez, and Maria decided to go back to Ukraine, but as they arrived, Ukraine was in a state of national emergency.

They packed their belongings ready to leave if necessary, and spent a night staying with friends on the outskirts of the capital.

But, when Jez and Maria woke up on Friday 25 February, they discovered the country had been invaded by Russian troops.

Jez said: "We woke up to loads of message and lots of news. We knew absolutely nothing about anything that had gone on through the night.

"It was a case of right, let's go. We already had everything packed and contingency plans in place."

The couple headed for Lviv, near to Ukraine's border with Poland. There, they were faced with huge queues of traffic as thousands of people desperately attempted to flee Kyiv.

Jez said: "There were long queues at petrol stations, supermarkets and cash machines."

After a gruelling 10-hour drive they eventually arrived in Lviv where they stayed overnight with friends and will try to make it across the border and into Poland.

Jez hopes to return home to Manchester, but says he has no option but to remain with Maria.

She applied for a UK visitor visa three weeks ago, but is yet to hear back from the Home Office.

Due to Maria's job as a journalist, the couple fear she could be targeted by Putin's regime. Maria remains torn about having to leave her family behind.

Maria said: "I've been through a whole rollercoaster of emotions. I didn't expect this. I know there were many warnings, but I did not expect things to escalate so quickly.

"I have never seen scenes like this in my home country."

Jez added: "It's been very stressful. We don't know what to do. We know we need to get to the border, but we don't know what support is available. It's very tough for us."

Jez is providing live updates of their journey on Twitter. In his last update, he was at the Polish border.