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A BRITISH teacher says he is stuck in war-torn Ukraine as border officials today refused to let men leave.
Gavin Guest said “stressed” Ukrainian officials working at the Romanian border said a “British passport means nothing” as he made a desperate bid for safety.
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Gavin, who works as a teacher for the Ukrainian International School is desperately trying to flee after his apartment in Kyiv was bombed.
The 41-year-old told how thousands almost crashed down the gate at down at the Ukraine-Romania border after officials refused to let any man out of the country, which Gavin believes is due to conscription.
He told The Sun: “People working at the border said they weren’t interested in nationality, we’re all refugees.
“We showed them our British passports and they said no, no, no. We’re not letting any men through.”
Gavin said he saw single dads with young children and disabled men turned back, as well as several other foreign nations, including Mexican, German and other British men.
He said: “Guards were saying ‘women and children only’.”
The teacher, originally from Croydon, South London, said the only exceptions were a busload of Indian university students, and a handful of other foreign men – which he believes included one Brit – as well as women and children.
He explained he and a friend, Rebecca Jackson – also a teacher – had been driven to the border after fleeing Kyiv two weeks ago with their rescue dogs Eli and Lucas.
The apartment where Gavin had previously been living was blown up in air strikes just days ago.
The teachers fled to Lviv where they are now in a desperate scramble to get out, along with their dogs.
He said they waited for hours at the border, appealing for help on social media after guards said men couldn’t get through.
Gavin said: “Our friend contacted the British embassy in Romania, they said they got past Romanian guards no problem, but the Ukranian border refused them.
“They were told that their passports mean nothing now and weren’t allowed to leave the dead zone.”
The dead zone is the section of space between the borders of Ukraine and Romania.
He added: “They were around 50 metres away, so close and so far.
“Romanian border guards were shouting that there were bombs dropping on Romania and the fence was going to collapse – we had to retreat.”
The two Brits now face another gruelling day tomorrow as they attempt to squeeze through the single gate, which Gavin said let “about ten people and one car” through.
He added: “There was a single dad therewith his kids, and he couldn’t even get through, it was really distressing.
“We did say, how can we go through when even he can’t? And we did feel guilty.”
‘WOMEN AND CHILDREN ONLY’
The teacher added the warzone is “not something you can even imagine unless you experience it for yourself.
“I’m so focussed on getting out I don’t even know what I will do when I get to Romania. Probably sleep for two days,” he added.
It comes after swathes of desperate people fleeing the country were involved in a huge crush at the Polish border, in which a woman is said to have been killed.
Several others fainted in the crush, MailOnline reports.
Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainians who have fled the country could come back and fight.
And tonight, Ukrainians braced ahead of another night of shelling.
Air raid sirens rang out across the capital, Kyiv, following the third day of battle.
Today, hero Ukrainian fought off a blitz from Russian troops to hold a crucial road junction in a historic and courageous show of resistance.
Troops, dug in along the E40 highway near Beresteiska Metro Station five miles west of Kyiv city centre, were subjected to a withering bombardment.
Latest in Ukraine…
Ukrainian trucks and armoured vehicles erupted in flames under a hail of shells and rockets as Vladimir Putin’s elite special forces swept in.
And Ukrainian MP Sviatoslav Yurash said “hundreds” of Russians had been captured.
Speaking to Sky News before he went to the front, Mr Yurash said Russian forces were about 1.8 to 2.5 miles from where he was.
“Russians don’t have a good time here, to say the least,” he said.
“We have hundreds of POWs, we are issuing videos, showing Russians coming to Ukraine.”
He said Ukrainians “don’t have a choice” when it comes to fighting Russia as Putin has “time and again tried to denounce the very idea of Ukraine”.
“Everything is at stake, I’m no soldier, I don’t have much experience with the gun.
NO WAY OUT
“When you are fighting for your life you learn very quick. The reality is Ukraine doesn’t have a choice.
“Russia wants to destroy us and we will not let that happen. I was born in independent Ukraine and I will die in independent Ukraine.”
Mr Yurash was echoing the defiance of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky who refused a US offer of evacuation reportedly saying: “I need ammo not a ride.”
“The fight is here,” he told US officials amid as Russian forces stormed the capital, encountering fierce Ukrainian resistance.
In video messages, he also quashed rumours he has called for a surrender.
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