BBC journalist Clive Myrie has shared his experience of leaving Ukraine for Romania, after reporting on the front line since Russia invaded last month.
The broadcaster detailed his journey from the capital Kyiv to the Romanian border via Moldova in a series of tweets posted on Sunday evening.
Explaining that the drive to the border had taken 17 hours, Clive revealed that it then took a further eight hours to travel just two miles to the crossing.
He tweeted “After 17 or so hours drive in all from Kyiv, heading south then west, then into Moldova to the frontier, we arrive at the queue to cross from Moldova to Romania,’ he penned in his first post.
“This was to become a long night. We are less than two miles from the crossing.”
He continued: “A full 8 hours later, we travel the less than two miles to cross into Romania with the leaflet saying ‘If you are Ukrainian you have the right to enter Romania and you will be protected’.”
Clive also reflected on families who were fleeing for their lives after being shelled.
“It was a long, day of driving and queuing to get out of Kyiv. Imagine having to leave all you know in a hurry because you’re being shelled,” he continued.
“What do you pack? Do pets come too? It’s freezing cold and you pray those in neighbouring countries will welcome you, not despise you!
“My thoughts are with the one million who’ve fled Ukraine because they might be killed. The millions who fled Syria and many other millions escaping repression, poverty, war.
“They all pray they’ll be welcomed in other countries as human beings. That’s all they ask.”
Clive has received widespread praise for his coverage of the crisis over the past two weeks, including from fellow journalists.
Former BBC and GB News newsreader Simon McCoy said: “You are doing an amazing job. Look after yourselves.”
World At One presenter Sarah Montague added: “Watching @CliveMyrieBBC makes me feel very proud that I work at the BBC. He is a class act.”
During one of his early live reports from a rooftop opposite St Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv, Clive and the BBC’s chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet were forced to put on flak jackets after they were interrupted by an air raid siren.
He later told the PA news agency: “You’ve got to be aware that you are in the middle of a war zone, a live war zone, and anything could happen.
“None of us are stupid enough to stay out there reporting while bullets are raining down, that would be madness and frankly no story is worth that, but the advice was we could still keep broadcasting as long as we took the minimal protection of putting on safety gear.
“So that’s what we did and it meant we could continue telling the story, getting that across to our viewers so that they understand what is going on.”