Ukraine war: ‘We have belief in our president and in our nation’
Image source, PA Media
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A year ago war broke out in Ukraine when Russian invaded the country. Since then thousands of Ukrainians have fled to the UK to seek refuge. What do they remember of the outbreak of war and what is their life like now in the UK?
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Tetiana Hornik left the occupied south-east of Ukraine with her two children two and a half months ago.
She says she had "really painful memories" of the outbreak of war.
In the morning she says she opened her window and heard the sounds of rockets and sirens, "after that panic".
"We didn't know where to run," she says.
Mrs Hornik says it was a "really a terrible time without food in the shops, without medicine and without hope".
In early December she decided to flee Ukraine, leaving her husband behind who continues his work as a police officer.
She came to her sponsors in Rushden, Northamptonshire, who she says have been "supporting" her and her family.
"We have a lot of love, I don't know how I can say thank you to people and our host family," she says.
Mrs Hornik, who was a teacher in Ukraine, says: "Sometimes I want to go back home but I'm a mother and for my kids I can do [anything], I can live in another country, I can study English, because I want the best things for my kids.
"My husband protects our country and I should protect our kids, I want a happy childhood for them.
"All of my friends believe in Ukraine and believe in our soldiers.
"We have belief in our president and in our nation."
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Elena Zubyk, was living in Melitopol when Russia invaded and says: "I had a call from my son, it was very early, and he said 'quickly, you need to take children and go away very quickly'.
"I saw lots houses destroyed, I was standing in shock I prayed to God 'please save our children'."
She says she and her family went to an underground garage to shelter from the rockets.
"We think we will die, every day we prayed if we die please together and quickly," she says.
Mrs Zubyk says she and her family spent three nights in the garage before they were able to return home.
She says after three months in Melitopol she thought "we must escape".
"It was a miracle I found one family from England, they buy for us a [plane] ticket," she says.
But her husband had to take the family to Georgia through Russia, which she described as like a "terrible movie".
She says: "We deleted everything from our phones and tried to speak only Russian.
"I will always remember crossing into Georgia… it was so beautiful, I began to cry, it was freedom."
She settled with her host family in Harpole, Northamptonshire, and in November, she moved to her own home in Duston, near Northampton.
The Ukrainian says her sponsors gave her the "opportunity for a real, normal life, my children… just sleep without being afraid of dying".
Her husband works in logistics and travels between the UK and Ukraine to deliver supplies.
"Everyone from Ukraine is everywhere now but we do everything to make our victory more close," she says.
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Solomiia Blagitko lived in Kyiv for 20 years and was in the city when the war broke out.
"We had a few minutes to realise it's really started because it was not believable it will come to Kyiv, [that] it will happen," she says.
She and her husband packed bags for themselves and their three children, but while she and children went to escape, her husband went to continue his work in logistics.
Mrs Blagitko says in the cars exiting Kyiv on the day the war started, people were wearing just "pyjamas and jackets".
It took 12 hours to get out of the city, she says, adding: "We just stayed in the car, prayed and moved centimetre by centimetre."
She says she was functioning on "instinct and shock".
The Ukrainian was able to come to the UK under the Homes for Ukraine scheme to her hosts in Northamptonshire in the summer.
In her home country she ran a kindergarten and says she is "still in touch with our families and we are still waiting one to get back to kindergarten".
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Source: www.bbc.com
