Ukrainian refugee on fleeing Kyiv for Scotland and her new home in Montrose

The 18-year-old arrived in Scotland on Monday after a Montrose family sponsored her UK visa. She is safe now – but only a few short weeks ago she feared for her life, and for her family’s, as the Russian military commenced its invasion of her homeland.

Shevtsova would have escaped quicker if she could, but her family – mum Nataliia Shevtsova and dad Oleh Shevtsova – tried and it was too difficult. She is among the more than three million Ukrainians fleeing the war, and on her way to the Polish border, cars stretched for miles.

Harry and Catriona Smart chose to sponsor Shevtsova’s visa to come to the UK and they met for the first time on Monday at Edinburgh’s Waverley Station.

Varvara Shevtsova was in her second year at university in Kyiv studying to become a social worker

Shevtsova had been in her second year at university in Kyiv studying to become a social worker.

“Before the war started everybody was so tense, so anxious,” she explains. “But no one could believe that an open invasion would happen. In Ukraine, it was horrible and intense.

READ MORE: 'Lviv is my home': Scottish veteran airlifted from Ukraine desperate for UK to open its doors 

“The first day I was woken up by my mom and she said, ‘wake up’. I just jumped from my bed and asked her, ‘is it war?’ And she said, 'Yes'.

“And then we started packing up, and the planes were flying very nearby our district, and our house, and we saw some flashes and explosions from our windows.

“Just the feeling of danger, the feeling of fear that you can lose your life at any moment.

"And then we decided that my dad will drive us to the border to help us to get to Poland. But we just looked out from the window, and there were too many cars parking and trying to leave the city. So there was no way we could escape."

The young Ukrainian then sought refuge in a bomb shelter in the city's underground.

Varvara Shevtsova struggled to sleep in the underground her family fled to as the sound of bombing continued

“No one was prepared so we slept on the floor," she says. "And we had not enough food and not enough water. We were stuck in the shelter just waiting to see what will happen, and it was really scary.

“And then we went out for a couple of hours to go to our house and collect our things to go back into the shelter. And my parents managed to sleep for a couple of hours but I couldn't sleep. We always slept in our outer clothing in case there was an air siren.

“Every night you fall asleep you just hope that you will wake up and wake up naturally, not because they are bombing our underground shelter. And you just hope that you will wake up, and you won’t die in your sleep.”

Shevtsova says leaving Ukraine wasn't as easy as just packing her things and leaving.

Trains were only running to evacuate people, and they were packed, as were the roads as millions fled.

When she finally managed to get on to a train, “we travelled without any lights," she says.

She continues: “Because otherwise, somebody will notice us and will shoot at us and shell our train. We didn't even pay attention to where exactly the train will stop. Any train, we just jump in, and then we're ready to leave. And then finally, we had some sleep.”

Now in Scotland, Shevtsova is eager to start organising her new life here, looking at continuing her studies at a Scottish university.

But while she is safe in Scotland, her dad Oleh is not, with the 53-year-old staying in the country to “protect our house and defend Ukraine”.

While Varvara Shevtsova fled with her mum, her dad stayed to protect her homeland

“I felt really, really bad. Leaving all of my life behind,” she says. “I wasn't prepared to do anything. I didn't have enough stuff with me. And it’s just really devastating because my father is in Kyiv, my cat is in Kyiv, and my mom, she couldn't come with me to the UK.

“She stayed in Germany because there are some elderly relatives she has to take care of. I left all of my old life behind myself. And now, my friends are all over Europe, all over the world.

"I don't know what to do with the university, I don't know what to do with my work, and my plans have just been shattered. So that's what I live with. And I'm happy that I'm in Scotland now because I can start searching for my life but this is one of the saddest periods of my life.”

Shevtsova was taken in by Catriona, who worked as a biology teacher before retiring, and her husband Harry, a writer.

Harry and Catriona Smart chose to sponsor Varvara Shevtsova's visa to come to the UK. They met for the first time on Monday at Edinburgh's Waverley Station

The couple, both 66, aren’t strangers to welcoming others, having done the same during the Bosnian war. But they said applying for visa sponsorship isn’t easy or straightforward and joined widespread calls urging the UK Government to do more to help Ukrainian refugees.

Harry said: “Basically, we just thought we should do it. We felt it was the right thing to do. I guess that's a kind of gut-level emotional response in the first instance.

READ MORE: More than 20 Highland businesses pledge to sponsor 60 Ukrainian refugees

“When the homes for Ukraine scheme was announced, it was incredibly vague. The information took an age to come out. It took ages to get the form. And then the form was huge and complicated, and with no guidance as to when we would get a decision.

“We would urge the government to just ditch the whole visa thing and just let people come straight in. Or let Scotland issue its own visas.”

Shevtsova is one of the lucky ones. Millions of Ukrainians are fleeing the country and even more are displaced, a number bigger than the population of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.

Amid the exodus, the UK has been criticised for being too slow to act, and there have been widespread calls to follow the EU and ditch the visa requirement so more people like Shevtsova can reach safety.