Ukrainian boy and his family leave cellar after 87 days for safety abroad

The last child in a ruined village in north-east Ukraine has been evacuated with his family from the basement in which they lived for three months after a benefactor read of their plight in the Guardian.

Tymofiy Seidov, eight, did not want to come out of his underground home in Kutuzivka, east of Kharkiv, owing to Russian fire, but he was gently persuaded to leave on Sunday by his mother, Rita Sotnikova, and a second woman in the basement, Alla Lisnenko, 59.

Their future remains full of uncertainty as they look to resettle in a strange country without money or the ability to speak the local languages, yet Rita said the family had no choice but to flee the fighting.

Rita said making the decision to leave Kutuzivka had been difficult, although it was confirmed as the right move as they emerged from the basement to see the full scale of the damage wreaked on her village.