‘Ready to defend our homeland’: Ukrainians in UK plan to return home to fight Putin’s invaders – as hundreds are set to ‘stand up against totalitarian Russia’ during rally in London today

• Ukrainians living in the UK are planning to return to defend their country
• One explained that ‘the love for the country for Ukrainians is above all’ 
• Russia has invaded Ukraine with an all-out attack from north, south and east
• Missiles and bombs struck targets from east to west, destroying military bases

Ukrainians living in the UK are planning to return home to defend their country from Russia – as others prepare to protest at Downing Street to urge Boris Johnson to do more.

Putin’s forces bombarded its neighbour just after 4am this morning with land and air attacks from the north, south and east.

It was a brutal realisation of what many Ukrainians had feared for the past eight years since Russian annexed the Crimea.

Now some of those living in the UK are preparing to return hone to defend their home country.

Flights are impossible so many are jetting to the nearest airport to the country before attempting to drive in across the borders.

Marta Mulyak, 39, the head of the London branch of Plast National Scout Organisation of Ukraine, told MailOnline: ‘I have been up since 4am today, I woke up and felt anxious and then I saw the news and saw why.

‘Some of my friends have said they will return to try and defend the country. They are not military people, the love for the country for Ukrainians is above all and they want to protect our country.

‘The people that are trying to get over to Ukraine they are not sure how they will get there. I guess the only way is to drive from the closest airport.

Marta Mulyak, 39, said some Ukrainians in the UK were planning to return home to help

Petro Chymera, 32, and Olesya Khromeychuk, 38, said their prayers were with Ukraine 

Ela Czuruk from the Ukraine outside the Russian Embassy. Russians and Ukrainians unite in protest outside the Russian Embassy in London over Putins attack on the Ukraine.

‘Right now our main push is to co-ordinate out actions across the world. We believe in our regular army.

‘There are a lot of people over there who have also joined local forces.

‘We have been warning about Russia for eight years. If Russia isn’t stopped now it will go further than Ukraine. Unfortunately history seems to be repeating itself.

‘I am afraid if action is not taken now there will be consequences for the whole world.’

Wolodymyr Pawluk, 58, chair of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, told The Guardian some military veterans living in Britain were thinking of going back.

He said: ‘In London, I can only say a handful have said that they will go back.

Protesters gather during a rally against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in front of the Russian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden

An explosion lights up the night sky over Kiev in the early hours of Thursday, as Russia launched an all-out attack on Ukraine from north, south and east with bombs, cruise missiles and rockets raining from the skies

A huge explosion is seen at Vinnytsia military base, in central Ukraine, as the country comes under all-out attack by Russia

The attack has come to Ukraine on all fronts, with bombs and missiles striking targets across the country, ground forces rolling in from Belarus, Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk, and paratroopers dropping on Kharkiv

‘There are many more that I’ve also heard will go, although I don’t know them personally.’

Olesya Khromeychuk, 38, said: ‘Just imagining what sort of bloodshed this is likely to cause is awful. I lost my brother, who was serving in the Ukrainian armed forces, at the frontline in 2017. Volodya was 42 when he was killed by shrapnel in the Luhansk region. He lived in western Europe but moved back to join up.’

Head of the Ukrainian Youth Association in Bradford Petro Chymera, 32, said some members of the local community were preparing contingency plans to help relatives in east Ukraine seek refuge in Western Europe and the UK.

‘Hundreds’ of Ukrainian troops were killed in early clashes this morning.

A Stop Putin protest is also due to start at Downing Street at midday today after action yesterday outside the Russian embassy. 

Official figures put the death toll at 40, with ‘dozens’ wounded.

Cruise missiles, guided bombs and GRAD rockets took out targets from east to west – aimed at airfields, military bases, ammo dumps, and command posts including in the capital.

Six Russian jets were shot out of the sky over the eastern Donbass region with 50 Russian troops killed, Ukraine claimed, before Moscow boasted of taking full control of the skies.

Ukrainian border guards said they had come under attack by heavy artillery, tanks and troops from Russia and Belarus as Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko threw his forces into the fight – though he denied taking part.

Hundreds of people have already demonstrated against Russia’s aggression against Ukraine outside the Russian embassy in London last night.

They held banner reading ‘Putin hands off Ukraine’, ‘Putin kills’ and ‘Ukraine will never surrender’ outside the embassy in Kensington.

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