A British Liberal rabbi has spoken of her shock after finding herself trapped in Kyiv when Russia launched its attack — before embarking on a fraught four-day journey to escape over land.

Tanya Sakhnovich (above), the Rabbi of Elstree Liberal Synagogue, travelled to Kyiv on February 20 to celebrate the 21st birthday of her son, who was there on his gap year.

Although he had tried to leave Ukraine a week earlier amid the warnings of a possible invasion, his car broke down, leaving him stranded.

Rabbi Sakhnovich, who is originally from Minsk in Belarus, told the JC: “I thought, it’s his birthday, I want to be with him if, God forbid, the war starts. I would rather be with him than watching the news going crazy.” Her brother and niece travelled from Belarus to join them.

“My son didn’t really share my concerns about Russia and Putin’s aggression,” she added. “He didn’t believe it would ever happen. He thought there might be some aggression on the eastern border, but he never thought Putin would launch a fully-fledged attack on Ukraine like this.

“I woke up at around five o’clock to the sound of explosions. The whole city changed. Where we were, in Kyiv, we could hear gunshots as well.”

The family argued about whether they should leave immediately or stay put and take shelter.

By the time they tried to leave, there were massive queues at the train station.

Despite trying for hours, they could not get tickets to anywhere outside Ukraine, so the family set out for the border in her son’s car.

“It was constantly cold. It was minus four,” she said. But with limited petrol, the family chose not to keep the car heating on.

After driving for many hours, they found themselves begging for fuel in a petrol station which had turned off its lights and closed down. They were turned away from two land crossings, before finally reaching Moldova having spent four days living in their car.

The experience has given her a new appreciation of the kindness of strangers. Volunteers brought food and supplies to the 10 miles of cars queueing to get out of Ukraine.

She said: “Moments of such terror and aggression bring out the best and the worst in people. Seeing that actually, goodness prevails, it gives me so much hope about humanity.”