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Scot living in Ukraine fears ‘chaos’ as he tries to get family out of country

Stuart McKenzie said he was looking at how to get his children out ‘as soon as possible’.

Neil Pooran
Saturday 12 February 2022 11:59 GMT
Expats have been advised to leave Ukraine (Vadim Ghirda/AP)
Expats have been advised to leave Ukraine (Vadim Ghirda/AP) (AP)

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A Scottish man who is living in Ukraine has said he fears “chaos” as he tries to get his family out of the country quickly.

Businessman Stuart McKenzie said he was worried a mass exodus of people from the country would lead to panicked scenes on the border.

Western governments including the UK have told their citizens to leave as soon as possible amid fears Russia could invade in the coming days.

The Foreign Office has said British expats should “leave now while commercial means are still available”.

Mr McKenzie, who lives in Kiev said he was worried roads could be closed off and flights grounded if the situation deteriorated.

He told BBC Breakfast on Saturday: “With young children in the country, I’ve got to take their safety as a priority so we’re definitely looking at how to get them out as soon as possible.

“So many people are trying to leave at the same time and there won’t be flights, the roads will be blocked, are you going to be able to get fuel for your car? Is there going to be cash in the banking machines?

“There could be so many things happening, so much chaos happening.”

He added: “Day to day, people are trying to get on with their lives, however, every day it seems that there’s more and more threats and we hear as soon as next week we could have Russian troops in the country.

“These things can go out of control very fast so we’ve got to be on the right side of the chaos, because to think of a border with a million cars and panic happening would be disastrous.”

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