Ukraine: Sheffield man converts attic so twin sister and family can come and live in UK after fleeing their childhood home in Mariupol

Anton Levsiushkin, 38, says he hardly dare let himself think about the moment he sees his sister and her family again should the rescue mission go to plan.

But, in the meantime, he has been converting the attic at his home in Hillsborough into living accommodation for sister Nastia, her husband Serhiy and their two month old baby, Mariia.

Nastia and Serhiy fled their apartment in Mariupol, which was also Mr Levsiushkin’s childhood home, when war started on February 24 taking few belongings as they thought it might only last days.

They have changed their hiding place three times but have now made it to the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine and are waiting to verify whether they can leave the country.

Mr Levsiushkin plans to meet them at border of Ukraine and Romania and fly back to Manchester.

“I have a three bedroomed house and it is only me and my wife. The attic is part home office and part dumping ground of everything. I am clearing it out and it will be their room and I will go back to the office.”

Mr Levsiushkin says maintaining contact with his sister has been sporadic due to power being cut off, no signal, being unable to charge phones and it being too dangerous.

He said: “For 11 days I did not know whether they were alive or not. It was the most horrible time of my life by far. I remember how I felt those days so can only imagine what they were going through.”

Mr Levsiushkin said he had an out-pouring of support from his Sheffield neighbours who know he is from Mariupol and who also wanted to house refugees but says the effort is being hampered.

He added: “The paperwork is a bureaucratic monster. The government has made a conscious decision to treat them like this.”