'Our peaceful Monday still hasn’t come'

"The war started on a Thursday, and I kept thinking: 'It’ll be over by Monday, we all have to work, it can’t be that serious.

"But in a few months now, it may mark three years since the full-scale invasion began, and that peaceful Monday still hasn’t come."

This week marked 1,000 days since Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Sofiia Rozhdestvina, 26, remains separated from family and friends in Kyiv.

She checks on their well-being every day before beginning her recruitment job at Warwick Business School although she said mentally she was still there with them.

"We all long for the war to end, but for now, our paths are leading us in different directions," she said.

Ms Rozhdestvina, who was born in now Russian-occupied Donestsk said she had lived with war in her country for 10 years but the full-scale invasion in 2022 caused her to leave her homeland.

She had lived in Kyiv where she got a degree in economics and worked for international companies, but left with relatives in March for the Czech Republic before moving to Italy and then the UK in October 2023.

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Her mother and grandmother went with her to the Czech Republic, but she travelled to Italy and stayed with hosts while they returned to Kyiv.

Language struggles in Italy prompted her to relocate to the UK, she said.

"I planned my three-day driving route, booked a ferry, and in October 2023, a British family welcomed me into their home under the Homes for Ukraine program, and I can now truly say they have become my second family," she said.

Ms Rozhdestvina spent almost a year with David Haugh and his wife Allison Fraser in a village just outside Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire.

"She is a lovely person and we were pleased to help her," Mr Haugh said.

"We gave her an opening here and she took full advantage of that... she's very ambitious and hardworking and we were there as a safety net to let her open her wings."

He said they wanted to help due to the injustice of the war in Ukraine and were very pleased at how the friendship progressed.

"She will be with us for Christmas... and her mother has been here to visit," he added.

A family friend helped her find employment at the business school which Ms Rozhdestvina said she loved, although adapting to life in the UK as the war continued remained challenging, she said.

"There’s such a contrast in experiences - while daily life here feels stable, my perspective has been fundamentally altered by both the trauma of war and the transformation of immigration," she said.

The dangers friends and family face was a daily test to keep going, she said.

"When you witness people facing life-shattering losses, it changes you and it’s impossible not to be affected and that’s what is happening to all Ukrainians since 2022."

Ms Rozhdestvina said she planned to build a life in the UK and felt "endlessly grateful" and in return wanted to apply her skills and work hard.

"In the UK, I’ve never felt judged or offended for being Ukrainian," she said.

"I’ve experienced so much support and care from the people around me, both on personal and governmental levels."

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