A group taking supplies donated by the Coalville public for Ukraine refugees made it to their destination - despite concerns they could be taken hostage.

They left the Marlene Reid Centre in Belvoir Road on Saturday for Poland with two vanloads of items to be given to Ukrainian cititzens fleeing Russian bombardment.

Aid for Ukraine leaves Marlene Reid Centre bound for Poland.

But their original plan was abandoned when it became clear they would have to cross the Polish border and travel into Ukraine.

That would have meant trying to negotiate their way back into Poland or, even worse, being held by Russian forces as westerners offering aid to refugees in Ukraine.

The more they were told they had to drive to a 'neutral zone' to deliver supplies, the more suspicious they became.

One of the organisers, county councillor Craig Smith, told Coalville Nub News: "We had a bit of a hairy moment when we got there on Sunday.

"The contact we'd been using said we need to meet in a 'neutral zone' which involved driving into Ukraine.

"We said we'd do that if it was absolutely necessary, but the instructions we were getting were constantly changing.

"And we thought: 'There's something wrong here'.

"The lady we were dealing with then started talking about 'green zones'.

"The instructon was for us to cross into Ukraine and they would send cars to meet us. But we knew there was no neutral zone, just a border.

"That raised a few eyebrows. Then we heard stories of westerners going into Ukraine and being 'grabbed' and effectively being used as hostages.

"Either way, it looked like there a lot of political clout involved.

"We decided among ourselves to meet in a place called Hrushiv which is in Ukraine - but we were told this was the neutral zone.

"So we got in touch with another contact who'd been out there previously and we were able to make the drop-off, and they were really grateful.

"We pulled the original plan at the last minute.

"There was another delivery there from Bristol, the supplies were handed out to the right people. That was 2kms away from the Ukraine border."

Craig says the journey was a learning curve for future aid deliveries.

He said: "We can report back to the Marlene Reid Centre and let anyone else know what they might face.

"Had we gone into Ukraine, there was no guarantee of getting back out again.

"We had to keep our wits about us. We had to have our wits about us. But we had enough forces experience among us to sense something didn't smell right.

"The contact was someone we'd never met before and we didn't trust what they were telling us."