DISABILITY rights campaigners are urging ministers to urgently help disabled Ukrainian refugees seeking to come to Britain amid reports vulnerable people are being left behind. 

There are almost three million disabled people in Ukraine, however a lack of accessible transportation is making it difficult for them to flee the Russian onslaught, according to reports. 

Ukrainian refugee and wheelchair user Tanya Herasymova managed to escape to Poland last week with her mother, describing it as the “hardest night of my life.” 

“We don’t have enough accessible transport in Ukraine, and trains are not, so people had to help me on my way,” she told the BBC World Service. 

Only women, children and older people have been prioritised for evacuation, “but no one is talking about people with disabilities,” she said.

Others have stayed in their homes because they don’t think they’d be able to leave, she said. 

“Some of them [are] sitting there without food, without medicine. 

“But it’s hard because not every person [has] been trying to go to the basement or bomb shelter because that is not accessible.”

Ms Herasymova is also a project coordinator for disability-led group Fight for Rights, which is helping to support people with disabilities trying to flee the conflict. 

Disability Rights UK CEO Kamran Mallick has written to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and disability minister Chloe Smith asking them to urgently assist disabled people seeking to come to Britain. 

“As we have watched civilians racing to the country’s borders, headed for the relative safety of other countries, our thoughts have been with those disabled people who are unable to access the country’s transport infrastructure, and what will happen to them, particularly in urban areas now under heavy attack from Russian forces. More and longer term help is needed.”

Concerns about the plight of disabled people in Ukraine have also been raised by the European Disability Forum, especially for those living in institutions, and disabled children in orphanages. 

“Persons with disabilities living in institutions, already cut off from their communities, risk being abandoned and forgotten,” warned the group, which represents disabled people across Europe.

It comes as Home Secretary Priti Patel visited Poland today to meet Ukrainian refugees at the border and to launch the new family visa scheme. 

Labour has argued that that scheme does not go far enough, calling yesterday for an emergency visa to be made available to all Ukrainians seeking to come to Britain.