Call to flee Ukraine caused ‘quite a panic’, says British student

Haider Ali, 21, from Birmingham, arrives at Gatwick from Ukraine, where he studies at a medical university (Sophie Wingate/PA)

The call for British nationals to flee Ukraine as the threat of Russian invasion looms caused “quite a panic” and a rush to return home, according to a student who landed in the UK on one of the first commercial flights out of Kyiv since the warning.

Passengers arrived at Gatwick Airport, south of London, on a direct flight from the Ukrainian capital shortly after noon on Saturday, just hours after the UK foreign office warned nationals in the country, thought to number in the low thousands, to “leave now while commercial means are still available”.