John, his Ukrainian wife Yuliia and his mother-in-law Olga crossed the border yesterday morning. In an update on Facebook posted just before he lost internet connection, the clearly-exhausted 56-year-old wrote: "Out of Ukraine, just about to go into Poland. It's been a long way - so many emotions for everyone."

John's daughter Ruby, who lives with her daughter Poppy (John's granddaughter) in Haxby, said she had spoken to her dad shortly after he crossed the border. "He's exhausted, but they are safe," she told the Press.

But she said he was still have trouble getting a British visa for his wife. "It's not as plain sailing as the Government says," she said.

Ukranian women arrive at the train station in Przemysl, Poland, after crossing the border. Picture: AP

Ruby said the family were staying last night with a friend of Yuliia's son, who lives in Poland. They will then be driving to Yuliia's son's home, where Olga will stay.

John hopes to return to the York in the next few days, Ruby said - although Yuliia will stay with her son for a little longer.

He will initially stay with Ruby when he gets back. "I'm getting a bedroom ready for him," Ruby said.

Once Yuliia, a doctor, joins him, the couple will then have to try to pick up the pieces of their lives, she added.

Ruby has set up a Go Fund Me page - 'Help Dad and Julia' - to try to raise money to help her dad and step-mum make a new life for themselves.

"They don’t know if they will have a home to return to, yet alone a country!" she says, in a message on the Go Fund Me page. "They had to leave everything behind - as have so many others. It breaks my heart!I want to help my dad as much as possible!"

John, who was teaching English in the Ukraine, moved to Kharkiv in the country's far East - near the Russian border - to be with Yuliia three years ago.

The day before the Russian invasion, after hearing rumours that something was about to happen, they left the city and moved with Yuliia's mum Olga to a tiny village surrounded by fields and forests nearby. They sheltered there for almost a week, as Russian forces besieged Kharkiv.

At one point, there was shooting in the fields near their house. Ruby and her sister Rosanna, who both live in York, were on the phone to John at the time, and heard the gunshots. On another occasion, the railway bridge near their village was blown up.

With food and other supplies running out, they decided on Wednesday last week that they had to make a break for it.

They set off by car, initially joining a convoy and then continuing on their own - becoming part of a river of more than two million refugees who have now fled the country.

Abandoned vehicles at a destroyed bridge in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. Picture: AP

Progress, hampered by traffic jams and army checkpoints, was at times painfully slow.

On Saturday, after three days on the road and with two more days still to go, John posted: "We (are) all exhausted and a little moody but still alive and so looking forward to seeing our families - then think what to do with our lives."