Attempt to rescue Irish student in Ukraine appears to fail 

Racheal Diyaolu. Her sister tweeted to say that they got "bad news" this morning.

Attempts to rescue an Irish student in Ukraine appear to have failed.

Racheal Diyaolu, a 19-year-old from Carlow, moved to the country to study medicine.

It is believed she was due to be picked up today, with others, by British volunteers to get her out of the Sumy in eastern Ukraine.

Racheal's sister, Christiana, tweeted to say that they got "bad news" this morning.

She shared screenshots of a message that say Russian troops fired warning shots at the British volunteers, halting any attempt to reach Rachel's group.

They have been on the dangerous journey since yesterday. I was following their live stream. At 5am my sister and her two friends went to the location of the family in Sumy. Unfortunately to our horror, it seems like the operation has backfired. They were just 80km away… https://t.co/8ZEBuQR29u pic.twitter.com/4Af4fzj9LN

— 𝙿𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚊 (@PrincxssTiana) March 6, 2022

 

It is believed the rescuers were only around 80km away when they were forced to turn back. 

"Sumy is proving to be an awful place to get to," Christiana added.

"It’s supposedly surrounded by Russian military. I don’t know how much more devastation we can take. Please, the humanitarian cease fire/corridor for evacuation should extend to Sumy."

Last week, Racheal said where she is staying has a bunker where they go when it is deemed unsafe to be overground.

As reported in the Irish Examiner, she said being in Ukraine at present feels like “an out of body experience”.

"I try not to think about the fact that I am in the country that is going through war at this moment just because it does take a toll if you think about it a bit too much.

“The main thing I’m trying to do is to just stay positive and just stay in contact with my family and friends as much as possible and let them know that I am fine, I am safe — as safe as I can be in this point in time," she said.