Lucas Rangel: Brazilian footballer responds to influencer's plea to help mother-in-law escape Ukraine

«It was a deafening sound, something I had never heard before. They were flying really low so I just assumed, 'that's it, they're going to attack us',» Lucas Rangel told BBC Sport.

They didn't, but he cannot forget the first time he witnessed Russian fighter jets.

It was late at night on 24 February and, along with a couple of priests, the Brazilian forward had decided to flee the eastern Ukrainian city of Poltava in an attempt to reach the Polish border.

It was still early in the trip when Rangel checked his phone. While still recovering from the shock, he saw a message that had been forwarded by a friend.

The 27-year-old was intrigued to say the least.

It was from Brazilian travelling influencer Anderson Dias,external-link who found himself in the United States and was desperately seeking help to get his Ukrainian mother-in-law, Tetiana Sukhoparova, out of the country.

«I've got a private plane ready to rescue 14 people from Ukraine,» Dias, who has 1.4m Instagram followers, wrote on social media.external-link «One of those seats is for the mother of my girlfriend, so there are 13 other places left. If anyone knows the footballers who want to leave there, please let me know! I just need someone to get her by car from her town.»

Earlier that day a picture had circulated on social media of Brazilian players at Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv stranded at a hotel in Kyiv.

Dias had posted his message at around 9pm.

Rangel was not one of those in the Kyiv picture. But, three hours later, already had the 52-year-old Sukhoparova with him and was prepared to hit the road again, this time all the way to Krakow in Poland, where a flight to the Portuguese city of Porto awaited them.

Dias recalls: «As soon as I made that post, I received a