Bolton's Ukrainian Society leader says soldiers need prosthetic limbs

Yaroslaw Tymchyshyn says that the men who have been fighting for their homeland have been left badly injured and in need of prosthetic limbs

While many women and children fled to safety, men stayed behind fighting.

Yaraslaw said: “A family member arrived from Ukraine last week and told me that they need prosthetic limbs because we now have soldiers without arms or legs.

“While we have helped so many people fleeing, there is now the problem of people needing prosthetic limbs and we have to move onto this now.

“It’s a sad thing that this is now the reality of the people in Ukraine, but this is what has happened there.”

Recently, protests have been breaking out in Russia against the Russian President Vladimir Putin and his mobilisation, drafting around 300,000 people into the army.

The Russian leader has also spoken about possible nuclear weapons if the ‘west' continue provoking them.

Yaraslaw said: “I think of what the foreign minister said to the UN that when someone says they are not bluffing, they are bluffing.

“I don’t even think he would do something like use the nuclear weapons and even if he did, it’s not a one-man job, there is a system with different people with controls and they would stop him.

“But I didn’t think he would invade, and how wrong was I?”

Hostility has also been shown regarding Russia’s referendums aimed at annexing parts of Ukraine, including Kherson.

Yaraslaw said: “I am concerned at how can there be a referendum when the vast majority of people don’t live there?

“They have left or being deported so it’s a shame. He (Putin) is doing it so he can say that they want to be part of Russia.

“He wants to prove they acted with aggression towards Russia so he can use it against them but nobody will believe him.”

To help fund the appeal to help Ukraine's soldiers people can go into the Ukrainian Social Club on Castle Street in Tonge Moor.