A Suffolk dad faces a worrying wait for his Ukrainian volleyball star daughter to be granted a visa to come to the UK.

Andriy Danchak, a British citizen who lives in Tuddenham, near Bury St Edmunds, says his daughter Viktoriia applied for a visa more than two weeks ago after fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Viktoriia, who plays for the Ukrainian national volleyball team, left Ivano-Frankivsk in west Ukraine on March 5.

The 22-year-old travelled by bus to the border with Poland and, after a 24-hour wait, on to the city of Miedzyrzec Podlaski.

Andriy, who has lived in Suffolk for more than a decade, said: "It's a long time since I've seen her – probably about three years ago – because it was Covid and before that she was always playing volleyball and travelling on the road.

"It's already been 16 days and nobody will say how long it will take.

"She doesn't know how long it will take. It's not too bad for her because she's being looked after [in Poland], but she's not home, you know? She's not in her country, and she's worried."

"Even now that she's in Poland, every time she hears planes flying over it's a bit of a shock.

"Every day we speak two or three times and it's just: 'Has anything come? Has anything come?'.

East Anglian Daily Times: Andriy and Viktoriia Danchak.Andriy and Viktoriia Danchak. (Image: ANDRIY DANCHAK)

"It's just frustrating.

"I understand that for people who don't have somewhere to go there might be more checks, but obviously she has somebody to go to – I will look after her.

"I was even ready to get in the car and drive to Poland to pick her up.

"I just want her here so I know she's safe."

A government spokeswoman said the Home Office was constantly seeking to improve the visa process.

She added: “We are moving as quickly as possible to ensure that those fleeing horrific persecution in Ukraine can find safety in the UK, setting up the both Ukraine Family scheme and now the Homes for Ukraine scheme which allows those without family connections to come here.

“We have streamlined the visa application process so valid passport holders no longer have to attend in-person appointments before arriving and made changes to the forms people have to fill out in order to help people through the process as quickly as possible.”

As of 5pm on March 21, 32,500 visa applications had been submitted under the Ukraine Family Scheme. Of these 9,400 still need to be processed and just 12,400 had been granted.