'At night I look up at the stars and cry for my husband': Ukrainian surrogate in Ireland 

Ivanna Holub was rescued from Ukraine when the Irish woman whose babies she'd carried organised two Scottish gardeners to rescue her. She tells her extraordinary story

Cathy Wheatley, centre, with her twins Ted and Elsie, 2, who were born by surrogacy in Ukraine to Ivanna Holub, with her three children Oleg 5, right, Sergii ,7 and baby Ludmilla, 6 months at the Wheatley home in Co Wicklow. Picture: Moya Nolan

The moment the Russians started bombing the airport near her home was the moment Ivanna Holub finally realised she had to take her children out of Ukraine.

The massive explosion came just 15 minutes after her mother called her at 5am on February 24 and hysterically uttered words she never believed she would hear: “It’s war!”.