English teacher who fled Ukraine with family 'struggling to make ends meet'

An English teacher who fled Ukraine with his family says he is struggling to make ends meet.

Dan Baker, 41, who is originally from Brighton, was living with his family in Kyiv until the Russian invasion.

The family managed to reach the safety of Poland, but now say money is running out.

Dan Baker said: "Effectively, as of three weeks ago, we are homeless and unemployed. That's the long and short of it.

"I know most people try to have more than three weeks worth of savings but we'd just finished renovating a flat, so we were at the bottom of a trough at the moment. It came at the worst time.

"There's no good time for war but it came at a very bad time for us."

• Dan Baker has documented his journey out of Ukraine

Dan Baker married his Ukranian wife Victoria in 2016, they then set up home in Kyiv with Victoria's daughter Veronica and their cat Pumpkin.

The family were forced to shelter in the basement of the school the couple run in the capital.

Dan has been keeping a video diary of their journey, he says "to keep himself sane".

Dan says the family have relied on savings to continue to pay direct debits as well as day to day living costs.

He said: "Unfortunately these have now run out and we still haven't been able to get back to the UK.

"We need to continue paying our outgoings until we can safely return to Kyiv but we don't know how long that will take as it's not safe at the moment."

Meanwhile, some 43,000 people in Britain have signed up to host a Ukrainian refugee after a government sponsor scheme was published on Monday, government sources have said.

Communities Secretary Michael Gove set out details of the scheme in the House of Commons and told MPs that people across the UK will be rewarded with £350 a month if they commit.