By Sean Moriarty

It has been a week that they'll never forget - meeting their newborn son for the very first time - and getting out of Ukraine safely before the Russian invasion yesterday (Thursday).

Dermot and Dorothy Moynihan from Killorglin were full of emotions as they were up against the clock last week to get into and out of Ukraine to get their baby boy Luke - who was born by surrogate last week - and bring him home to Kerry.

They were able to fly from Lviv near the Polish border on Monday morning. A day later Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops arrived in the Eastern provinces of the country. The situation there is getting more and more volatile by the day.Luke was born one week sooner than his due date and should have arrived into this world on the same day Russian troops entered the country.Dermot and Dorothy faced international diplomatic complications including word from the Irish Government advising all Irish citizens to leave the country.The couple arrived in the Ukraine last Thursday but thanks to huge efforts from their Irish and Ukrainian legal teams, and help from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), they secured travel paperwork for baby Luke on Sunday. They flew from Lviv to London Stansted on Monday and onwards to Dublin on Tuesday.“It has been quite the adventure,” Dermot told the Killarney Advertiser. “There has been huge emotions in the last week. One of our relations joked that Luke has already been in London – they have never been in London. We are keeping all the press clippings of this time for him – it will be a very special memory for Luke.”He paid tribute to his legal team and DFA officials who helped him get out of the country but also paid tribute to the people there.“Ukraine is an amazing country, the people are lovely, they are very hard working and it’s a very safe place,” he added. “They really did not believe this could happen – there is no way Putin will do it. They are trying very hard to modernise the country and now all this work is pulled away from them.”