Mother had to take baby out of hospital incubator to escape bomb in Ukraine
Charlotte Hobson and Gavin Knight speak to ITV News
Two friends from Truro have spoken of the horrors they have witnessed and heard about while volunteering on the Poland-Ukraine border.
Charlotte Hobson and Gavin Knight travelled to the city of Hrebenne to help refugees by acting as translators.
The pair are both fluent in Russian after having lived there, so spent their time giving aid and assisting people with directions or finding transport.
Speaking from Poland about what she's witnessed while working at a refugee centre, Charlotte told ITV News about a mother who had to take her baby out of a hospital incubator to escape a bomb.
"Bombs started falling on the hospital," Charlotte said.
"She had to snatch her baby out of the incubator and go out into the night, freezing cold, and travel to the border.
"She was half-frozen, not in a good physical state herself and this tiny baby was whisked off to hospital in Poland.
"Apparently the prognosis is good though - that's the last I heard."
Charlotte also described another woman she encountered at the centre - who had been waiting for six hours to meet her teenage son who was travelling to meet her.
"A young woman called Tanya appears, distraught; she’s been waiting already for 6 hours", she wrote in a Facebook post.
"She’s here to meet her 14-year-old son who is travelling alone to the border, but the information is confusing - first he’s four hours away, then two, then four again, and she can’t bear the stress.
"We decided she needs to be busy and take her with us, give her jobs".
She also described seeing a van which arrived full of children with just two or three women.
"Their tired little faces perk up to be offered sweets, fluffy toys and colouring books", she wrote.
"One boy refuses the toy cat he is offered and it’s only half an hour later that he plucks up courage to ask for a large, soft monkey. He hugs it and closed his eyes".
"Meanwhile the van they came in is being loaded up with food and goods for Ukrainians- the driver is going in again for another van load of children, he will make three trips, he says."
Charlotte and Gavin have been in Poland for the past week and are currently driving back to the UK today (March 16) - a journey that will take them several days.
They both intend to return to the Poland-Ukraine border in the coming weeks to offer their help to people fleeing conflict.