Irish student in Ukraine ‘hopeful’ of reaching EU border by Wednesday

A Co Carlow medical student who has been trapped in Ukraine since the outbreak of war has said she is “hopeful” of reaching a European Union border by Wednesday morning, following a two-day journey across Ukraine.

Racheal Diyaolu, a 19-year-old student, had been living in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, near the Russian border, when Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24th.

Following a previous unsuccessful rescue attempt, Ms Diyaolu was picked up on Monday by a two-van convoy driven by two Scottish men, who had travelled to Ukraine to help take trapped civilians out of the country after war broke out.

The group of 11 people now hope to reach the border of Ukraine and leave the country by Wednesday morning, following delays on the road over the course of Tuesday, which had slowed their progress towards the border.

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Speaking to The Irish Times on Tuesday evening, Ms Diyaolu said the two vans had been on the road since 8am that morning. “We did have some car troubles, so we had to sort those out and that sort of stopped us for over two hours, just trying to sort out the wheels of the car and the issues we had there,” she said.

The delay meant the group had to stop in a “safe place” in Ukraine for Tuesday night, in order to observe a curfew for safety reasons.

“We’ll be progressing early tomorrow morning to an EU border and, from there, hopefully we’ll have entry into an EU country and be out of Ukraine,” she said.

In a video posted on social media on Tuesday evening, Christiana Diyaolu, her older sister, said the group travelling towards the border had experienced “a lot of car problems”.

The vans “had a few flat tyres here and there” during the course of the day, which she said “has slowed down their progress considerably”.