Thousands follow Wigan man's journey as he escapes from Kyiv

Nick Taylor had been living in Kyiv with his partner, but decided to leave when Russia invaded last week.

He has been sharing his experiences on Twitter, where the number of followers on his account have been growing day by day.

He had been labelling his tweets with “war watch” for several weeks, as fears grew that Russian soldiers would be moving into the country.

While his colleagues were leaving Ukraine, Nick was still in Kyiv with his partner and watching football matches involving his beloved Wigan Athletic.

But on February 24 – the day Russia invaded Ukraine – he reported being woken “by what sounded like a bomb going off” and shared a photograph of long queues of vehicles trying to leave the city.

Nick tweeted: “Always wondered what air raid sirens sounded like, now I know.”

The following day Nick and his partner left their home and he shared photographs of soldiers carrying guns and military vehicles on the streets.

They managed to escape Kyiv that day and travelled to Chernivtsi, in western Ukraine, passing a “huge motorcade of military vehicles” during the journey.

That night, after arriving at a hotel, Nick tweeted: “I’ve snuck back to my lodge in the hotel with her, lights off but feeling safe and a comfy bed! Thanks so much for all the nice words, and thoughts to all the amazing people of Ukraine!”

But he described it as a “false dawn” as the road was blocked and trenches were being dug outside the next morning.

After watching Latics’ match against Sunderland on Saturday in the hotel, Nick and 13 other people travelled 400km in a minibus the next day to Moldova.

He spent Monday night on a bus to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, before travelling to Budapest, in Hungary, on Tuesday night.

He was due to fly out to the UK on Thursday and was looking forward to arriving home in Wigan.

Throughout the arduous journey, Nick encouraged his followers to support Joseph’s Goal, a charity set up by Wigan Post’s football writer

Paul Kendrick to find a cure for life-limiting disorder NKH, which his son Joseph has.

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