The British father who launched a one-man mission to save his wife and baby son who were stranded in Ukraine is facing an anxious wait to flee the war-torn country.
Ian Umney, 28, travelled more than 1,700 miles from St Helens in Merseyside to Nikopol in south-eastern Ukraine to be reunited with his his wife Nelia, 26, and their two-and-a-half-year-old son Jonathan.
The English teacher, who has only ever fired a BB gun before, vowed to stay and fight ‘without hesitation’ if he was called upon.
He quickly became a TikTok sensation – with more than 200,000 subscribers tuning in for his regular travel updates – and described the ’emotionally charged’ moment he was finally reunited with his family after his 46-hour trip.
But Mr Umney says he has now arranged travel out of the country as the Russian invasion ramped up after he reached the coastal city on Tuesday.
As troops continue to advance on Ukrainian cities, Umney says he has managed to book a last-minute evacuation train out of Ukraine that leaves Nikopol on March 13.
British teacher Ian Umney, 28, travelled more than 1,700 miles from St Helens in Merseyside to Nikopol in south-eastern Ukraine to be reunited with his his wife Nelia, 26, and their two-and-a-half-year-old son Jonathan (pictured together, above)
English teacher Ian Umney, who has only ever fired a BB gun before, had vowed to stay and fight ‘without hesitation’ if he was called upon or conscripted by Ukrainian forces
But the TikTok sensation – with more than 200,000 subscribers tuning in for his regular travel updates – now says he has arranged travel out of the country as the Russian invasion ramped up after he reached the coastal city on Tuesday
In the latest of his TikTok videos, Ian revealed his plan was to catch a train to Lviv in the west of Ukraine.
But the family now face a race against time, having already missed one of the planned evacuation trains to Dnipro.
He told his TikTok followers: ‘We’ve got a plan of exit from Ukraine. It’s all dependent on linking up to those evacuation trains in Dnipro.
‘From here we have to go to another city which has got quite some difficulties at the minute and then from there another train to Dnipro.
‘Then there is a free evacuation train.
‘We missed one today, there was one evacuation bus that left this morning from Dnipro.’
In later clips shared online, in which he can be seen playing with his young son, Ian adds: ‘So at the minute we have booked a direct train from here to Lviv on the 13th. That’s ten days away.
‘So what we are doing now is we are waiting to see if there is any more information that we can ascertain on moving.
‘Right now what I’m doing is going back to our family flat to tape up the windows.
‘To get a few bits and bobs packed away in the bag so its ready to go ready to bug out as and when we need it.’
Umney, who has lived in Ukraine for six years, had been working in Britain prior to Vladimir Putin’s invasion – leaving his family behind in the coastal city near the Russian border.
Having initially planned to make the 1,700 mile trip by car, Umney instead chose to fly to Kraków, in Poland and documented the trip on TikTok.
On Tuesday, Mr Umney, who quit his job as an English teacher to make the journey, posed for a heart-warming photo with Nelia and Jonathan in her parent’s apartment in the southern city of Nikopol.
The cute toddler, wearing a Paw Patrol jumper, was cradled in his father’s arms after his emotional journey.
Mr Umney beamed and could not hide his excitement at being with them again after a month apart.
Today he added: ‘It was a very emotionally charged moment when I saw them. My son held out his arms for me and I wept into my wife’s shoulder.
‘It was such a relief and more than worth the risk and stress of travelling. It’s been a long time. I’m finally here.’
His first job was to ‘bombproof’ the place they were staying in and tape up the windows after he arrived at the family home in Nikopol this week.
But with Russian military officials yesterday claiming control of Kherson, a key crossing point of the Dneiper and just 120miles to the south-west of Nikopol, his wife’s home city could soon come under siege.
Despite the threat of a Russian attack, Mr Umney, from St Helens, Merseyside, insists he will remain in the city and fight if his Ukrainian wife wishes to stay.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had earlier appeared to encourage Britons choosing to sign up to fight as part of an international legion of the Ukrainian armed forces.
But lawyers later warned that Britons who fight in Ukraine could be prosecuted under UK terror laws – much like those who took arms for Kurdish militia forces against ISIS in Syria.
Yesterday Prime Minister Boris Johnson waded into the debate, warning members of the so-called ‘Lads Army’ that they could be breaking British law by going over to Ukraine to fight.
Giving a speech in Estonia, Mr Johnson said: ‘I can understand why people feel as they do but we have laws in our country about international conflicts and how they should be conducted.’
Asked if, in the wake of Ms Truss’s comments, that the Government was encouraging Britons to fight, he replied: ‘The UK is not actively doing any such thing.’
If Mr Umney does choose to fight, or is conscripted into the Ukrainian Armed Forces, he will be among dozens of Britons – dubbed the ‘Lads’ Army’ – who have already volunteered to join the Ukrainian resistance.
‘One hundred per cent, I would bear arms and fight the Russians,’ he said.
‘I think Nelia will want to stay in Nikopol. If she wants to stay, then I will arm myself and defend her city.’
The pair had a whirlwind romance after meeting while Mr Umney was on holiday in the Ukraine in 2016.
‘We got married in January 2017. We had our son Jonathon in October 2019. I lived in the Ukraine for nearly six years, but before the invasion we had decided we would all move to the UK.
‘We spent Christmas together in the UK, then they went back to Ukraine for a bit.’
The former cybersecurity worker (pictured with his wife) vowed he was ‘on the way to reunite with my family by whatever means’
Mr Umney beamed and could not hide his excitement at being with them again after a month apart.
On Wednesday he added: ‘It was a very emotionally charged moment when I saw them. My son held out his arms for me and I wept into my wife’s shoulder.
‘It was such a relief and more than worth the risk and stress of travelling. It’s been a long time. I’m finally here.’
He made the decision to travel from the UK to Nikopol after Russian soldiers moved in last Friday.
He jetted from Manchester to Krakow in Poland on Sunday before catching a train to Lviv in his wife’s homeland on Monday.
Following heavy delays and cancellations on the railways he then caught another overnight train to Nikopol.
Exhausted, he finally got to his wife’s home city at lunchtime yesterday where he saw her and their little boy.
‘It’s been heartbreaking being without my family,’ he said.
‘But it’s quite exhilarating to be on a journey to see them. I feel like I’ve achieved something.’
He added: ‘We are going to spend some time together. We have been apart for a month. I last saw them on February 5.
‘We need to make a sensible decision about what we are going to do next for the three of us. My family back home said it’s too dangerous and it’s too risky.’
Russian tanks and a military truck are seen rolling through the streets of Kherson on Wednesday
Kherson, a city of 300,000 on the Black Sea, appears to have fallen under Russian control after the mayor said ‘armed visitors’ had taken over a council meeting and imposed curfews. If Putin’s men are in full control then it opens up the city of Odessa, home to Ukraine’s main naval port, to attack – with amphibious assault ships seen forming up near Crimea today
The city of Kherson is seen on Wednesday, with Russian forces seemingly in control. Kherson is the first major Ukrainian city to fall to the Russians
The news comes as Russia confirmed the capture of its first major city in Ukraine after a week of fighting, with Kherson – a regional capital of 300,000 people on the Black Sea – now under the control of Putin’s forces.
Igor Kolykhaiev, the city’s mayor, said in an update around 1.a.m that ‘armed visitors’ had stormed a council meeting and imposed new rules including a strict curfew and urged citizens to follow them.
But it was far from clear whether Ukrainian forces had totally withdrawn, with the UK MoD saying Thursday the situation is ‘unclear’.
If Kherson is under full Russian control, then it opens up Odessa – Ukraine’s main port city and primary naval base – to an assault.
Amphibious landing ships were seen forming up off the west coast of Crimea Thursday morning as US officials warned a major assault from the sea could come later in the day.
