'Ukrainians now feel like part of our family'

Imagine packing your possessions into bags, saying goodbye to family members and closing the front door of your home, not sure when you will be safe to return.

That's what some of the 180,000 Ukrainian refugees now in the UK experienced before moving here under the Homes for Ukraine scheme when Russian forces invaded their homeland in February 2022.

Two years on, what is life like for those who fled and set up new lives in the west of England?

Olha Stukman, 33, lived in the western city of Khmelnytskyi when the war broke out.

Olha said when she and her 11-year-old daughter Mira first arrived at the home of sponsors Julie and John Reynard in Cheddar, Somerset, she "could only look at everything with frightened eyes".

"When we first arrived everything was foreign. Sounds similar to sirens were frightening, especially helicopters at night," she said.

Olha said she decided to flee Ukraine in April 2022 after becoming "really afraid" for her daughter.

"Our city wasn’t shelled but it was scary when the air raid siren went off," she added.

After being moved to Lviv briefly, the pair eventually found their way to a refugee centre in Przemysl, Poland, where they found their sponsors through charity Love Bristol.

Since arriving in the UK in June 2022, Olha said "things are much better" and she now has a job housekeeping and has made friends locally.

"We know everything around us and everyone knows us. Now it feels like we’ve been living here for 10 years," she added.

Her sponsor Julie said: "Our experience of hosting has been all positive."

"Olha and Mira settled in with us immediately and they feel like part of our family," she added.

Ruth and Bob Drew, from Theale, Somerset, who took in 52-year-old Iryna Kovryha and her 81-year-old father Victor Cherednichenko, understand the sentiment.

"We’ve grown to love them and they are now part of our family for keeps," said Mrs Drew.

As of March 2023, the South West had just over 11,000 sponsored arrivals from Ukraine.

Iryna, a dentist, said she had left Kharkiv with her father and cat in March 2022 after the city was bombarded by Russian forces.

Victor has Parkinson's disease and dementia and uses a wheelchair.

"We didn’t know where we were going – just to western Ukraine, just so as not to hear the rockets exploding," she said.

"It was very dangerous but it was also difficult to leave as there were not enough trains for evacuation."

From western Ukraine they travelled to a refugee centre near Rzeszow, Poland, then on to their sponsors' home in Theale, where they still live.

"They surrounded us with care and attention," Iryna said.

"My father and I have ended up in a wonderful family."

Sergey Ilkun was working in Poland when war broke out. His wife and two children joined him after fleeing the village of Kostryzhivka in western Ukraine.

“For half a year we lived in one room as a whole family," he said.

Sergey and his family arrived in the UK on 24 August 2022, setting up home with sponsors Rick and Emily Hill in Winterbourne, South Gloucestershire, for the first six months.

Sergey, who has since found a job as a mechanic and is renting a house in Yate with his family, said: "It was a pleasant and peaceful time that gave me time to reset.

"Rick and Emily accepted into their home not just strangers but people from another country, with a different culture, language and upbringing."

He added: "We do not know how everything will end in Ukraine but we have hope that we will defeat the evil that has been put upon us."

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