Teacher Who Joined Family In Ukraine 'Ready To Defend' Country In 'Escalating And Dire Situation'

A British teacher who quit his job to fly out to Ukraine to be with his family has said he is ‘ready to defend’ the country as the 'dire situation' escalates. 

Ian Umney quit his job as an English teacher in St Helens to fly out to be with his Ukrainian wife Nelia and their two-year-old son Jonathan. 

On Sunday, Umney flew from Manchester airport to Krakow in Poland before heading to the Ukrainian border. 

Umney said he felt an ‘overwhelming need’ to be with his family after hearing about the Russian invasion and flew to be with them so he could ‘make sure they’re safe’. 

Umney has since told UNILAD he has made it safely to Nikopol but has warned that things are ‘escalating’ and he’s now ‘ready to defend’ his family if it comes to it. 

Today, March 2, he told UNILAD: 'The situation has escalated to where the Russians are now just over the river from where we are now. So, as we speak, I’m getting the materials together to make my Molotov cocktails. 

'It does look like we’re going to be standing off here – I don’t think we’re going to be able to make it out of the city before the Russians attack, so it does look like some of them are going to die here.'

Umney met his wife in 2016 while he was on holiday in Ukraine – they wed in 2017 and their son was born in 2019. 

After spending six years in Ukraine, Umney and his wife decided to relocate to the UK, but hadn't arranged for that to happen before the invasion.

Ian with his wife Nelia and their son. (Ian Umney)

Umney had been working in the UK until the invasion, but upon hearing the news felt compelled to travel back to be with his family.

Since arriving, Umney has said things have taken a turn for the worse and that Russian troops were ‘poised and waiting’ to head across the river.

He said: 'I’ve taken the measure of getting my own Molotov cocktails ready. I haven’t got many bottles, all of the bottles in the shops… all of the alcohol has gone. It seems like everyone in Ukraine had a massive bender one day, emptied the bottles and reused them for Molotovs.

'I’ve got what I can here – this is my personal supply. I’m going to be making them tonight; hopefully I don’t have to use them but it seems like it’s going to be heading that way.

'The situation has escalated and we are now in a more dire situation but I am ready to defend if I have to and it looks like I will.'

He added: 'We will be victorious and these [Molotov cocktails] will kill a Russian, I guarantee, by my hand.'

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