LESS than a week ago, Daniel Collinson and his Ukrainian wife Yana were huddling underground in a Metro station in the Eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

As Russian shells pounded the city they, like thousands of others, had been forced to take shelter in their basements, or in underground stations. Their ordinary lives, as teachers, doctors, students, shopworkers, had suddenly been torn away.

Today, after escaping from the country on an evacuation train, Daniel and Yana stood on the steps of York's Mansion House, appealing to the city's people to support the country they love.

The couple, who are staying with Daniel's family in Acomb, were surprise speakers at a rally in support of Ukraine called by York Central MP Rachel Maskell.

"It is heartbreaking for me to be here," said Yana, her voice at times breaking with grief as she addressed a crowd of many hundreds in St Helen's Square.

York Press:

The crowd gathered in St Helen's Square this afternoon

"On February 24 we had the first attack on our city. Our normal lives ended forever.

"In Kharkiv, thousands of people now live in their basement, like rats. For some of them, those basements have become tombs."

After four days living in a metro station, Daniel and Yana were able to get a taxi to take them to the railway station in Kharkiv, where they boarded an evacuation train heading west to the Polish border. That was on Monday.

In Acomb on Tuesday morning, Daniel's mum Sue received a text from her son. He was able to tell her they were on a train heading for Poland. “We’ve got no charge, and my phone might die. But assume we’re safe!” he said.

Astonishingly, Daniel and Yana were back in York and reunited with Sue and the rest of Daniel's family by late Wednesday night, after catching a flight from Kracow.

But for Yana, the heartbreak is just beginning.

She has had to leave behind in the Ukraine all her famly - her father, her aunt, all her nephews and nieces.

But it was for all the the people of Ukraine that her heart was breaking, she told the St Helen's Square crowd.

York Press:

Yana speaking from the steps of the Mansion House this afternoon

"I don't want to talk about us, because we are well and safe," she said. "Everything that my husband and I went through seems like a horrible dream. But the people of Ukraine need your help."

There were desperate shortages in eastern Ukraine, she said - of food, water, clothing, and medicines.

"They need help and humnanitarian aid," Yana said, to a huge round of applause from the watching crowd.

"They need food, grains, tea - because that's the only way they can keep warm in the cold streets. They need water, juice, medicines - medicines for diabetes, high blood pressure, and for pain. They need bandages, hygiene products, soaps, nappies, clothes, thermal underwear. People of York, together we can help save Ukrainian lives."

York Press:

'We stand with Ukraine': York people in St Helen's Square today

Daniel talked abut the courage of the Ukrainian people - of the Ukrainian soldiers who recaptured the district of Ukraine where he, Yana and many others were sheltering underground, making it possible for them to make a break for freedom. "They are our heroes," he said.

He talked about the metro station staff, who kept working non-stop to look after those sheltering there while their own lives were falling apart.

The taxi driver who took them to the station risked his own life for a fare of £8 to get them there, Daniel said. "We saw bombed cars and lorries with bullet holes," he said. "And yet he was still joking."

And he spoke of the Ukrainian staff on the evacuaton trains - trains which ran 24/7, carrying desperate refugees, mostly women and children, to the Polish border. "And then they go straight back to pick up more people," he told the crowd.

This afternon's event was attended by both of York's MPs, as well as the Lord Mayor of York, the Archbishop of York, and representatives of organisations such as York City of Sanctuary, Refugee Action York and the York Human Rights netweork.

Speaker after speaker stood on the steps of the Mansion House to denounce the Russian invasion - and to call on the UK goverment to do more to help refugees.

The Lord Mayor of York, Cllr Chris Cullwick, recalled a visit from the Mayor of Lviv to York just four months ago.

York Press:

York Central MP Rachael Maskell, with the Lord Mayor of York, addressing the crowd in St Helen's Square this afternoon

And in a thundering speech, the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell denounced the Russian invasion as an act of 'unspeakable evil' by Putin's regime. 

"Together, today, we stand alongside the people of Ukraine," he said. "But we also stand alongside the people of the world - and I'm thinking especually of those brave people of Ruissia who are protesting on the styreets. Because this is not their war!"

York Central's Labour MP Rachael Maskell said the UK government needed to do far more to help refugees from Ukraine. The UK should open its doors, and welcome refugees without the need for visa, she said, as other European countries had done.

And York Outer's Conservative MP Julian Sturdy agreed with her. He quoted Boris Johnson, who had said that more than 200,000 Ukrainian refugees could ultimately come to Britain. But he added: "We must and should go further. We should act like out neighbours in European countries and open our borders to people."

Several speakers urged that, instead of donating clothes and food that would have to be transported all the way to Ukraine, what was really needed was money.
You can make a donation to the Red Cross' Ukraine appeal here: