The Russian invasion of Ukraine has already claimed more than 400 civilian lives and caused over 2 million people to flee the conflict.

However, the continued violence and closure of borders has also left hundreds of surrogate mothers, babies and embryos trapped in Ukraine, leaving couples in the UK and across Europe in turmoil.

Ukraine is the second most popular surrogacy destination for foreign couples after the USA and is one of only a handful of countries in the world that allows foreign nationals to enter into surrogacy arrangements.

Reports suggest that there are currently around 800 Ukrainian surrogates pregnant with children to foreign couples, many of whom have fled to Lviv, in the west of Ukraine, or across the southern border to Moldova.

There are also believed to be around 2,000 couples with embryos ready for fertility treatment being stored in Ukraine which they are unable to access.

According to surrogacy charity Growing Families, these numbers include 40 surrogates carrying babies for UK couples and around 130 UK couples who have embryos stored at facilities in the country.

“It is such a difficult situation and we are getting many calls daily from couples who have got surrogates or embryos in Ukraine who are desperate for information,” Sam Everingham, the global directo of Growing Families, told iNews. “They are panicking and worried about what will happen to their babies and about getting them to safety.”

Under the government’s current Ukraine family visa scheme, relatives of British nationals and settled persons can return to the UK, but this does not apply to unborn babies.

However, many other countries, including Ireland, have waived all entry requirements to help relocate Ukrainian refugees.

Senator Mary Seery Kearney, who is campaigning for surrogate women to be given refuge in Ireland, told BBC’s Woman’s Hour: “At the moment we have numbers of families of people who are on their way who are currently taking respite in Poland to gain a breath before they come to Ireland.”

However, Everingham suggests that while the situation is equally terrifying for the surrogates themselves, simplifying ‘airlifting’ them out of the country isn’t always an option as many don’t have passports.

A majority of the fertility clinics in Ukraine are located in the capital Kyiv, which has continually been targeted by Russian troops.

The war has meant the closure of services such as Ukraine’s birth register office, and a growing number of foreign couples have had infants born in Ukraine who they are now unable to reach.

Many of these couples have been forced to gather in neighbouring countries such as Poland and Moldova, while some governments are working on emergency measures to allow the babies to be granted temporary travel documents without birth certificates.

In response, a number of campaigners have written to the Home Office to ask them to make a “special provision” for the surrogates, and their own immediate families, to be allowed to come to the UK via the Ukraine family scheme.

Lawyer Natalie Gamble of NGA Law, a firm specialising in fertility law which is currently representing 24 British parents of unborn surrogate babies in Ukraine, told the Times: “These are women doing a life-changing thing for British citizen parents. And the parents feel that they are part of their families and they want to take care of them.

“I think to include them on the family visas is a really small thing at a really difficult time. This is a very unique class of people who absolutely deserve special protection.”

For more information about how you can help refugees fleeing Ukraine, check out this article.

Images: Getty