Scottish host drives Ukrainian family 2,500 miles home

A man who hosted a family fleeing the war in Ukraine has driven a mother and her two daughters 2,500 miles back to their home country.

Katya Voichenko has been living in the Moray town of Burghead since she arrived in Scotland nine months ago.

But with her children feeling homesick, Katya wanted to rejoin her partner Dima and son Leo in Ukraine.

So Danny Ralph and his friend Chris Harris decided the best thing to do was to take them home themselves.

Katya is from the city of Sumy, about 20 miles from the Russian border.

She came to Scotland last year with her daughters Masha and Ksyusha, and has been living in Danny's house in Burghead.

Katya said it had been a "difficult" decision to come to Scotland because of the uncertainty.

"We didn't know what we would have here, how it would be. It was scary," she said.

Katya said they ended up getting on very well with Danny and they enjoyed their time in Scotland.

She was able to keep up her hobby of pottery in Danny's house, even passing on some of that knowledge to her daughters.

But she acknowledged there were difficulties.

She said: "It's very difficult for mothers who had a full family in Ukraine before the war, but now they're raising children without the father, who's stayed in Ukraine.

"It's a really important reason why some people are going home."

Katya's partner and son had to stay in Ukraine when the war broke out. Men aged 18 to 60 were not allowed to leave as they were to prepare for service in the armed forces.

She said her own children were very homesick.

"They want to study in Ukraine. They want to work in the future in Ukraine," Katya said.

When Danny and Chris saw how Katya and her daughters were feeling, they decided to undertake a road trip.

"You're thinking about your own kids, your own bairns," Danny said.

"You do things for friends, and they're our friends."

They bought a van for the journey, which they plan to donate to charity when they get back to Scotland.

In addition to Katya and her daughters, they also used the van to carry children's clothes and medical supplies which they donated to a hospital in Kyiv.

And on the return journey, they are taking a group of 10 refugees back to Scotland.

The five-day journey to Ukraine included a detour to Luxembourg so Katya could see her sister, Leanna.

"The last time I saw my sister was in the beginning of the war," she said.

"It was terrible. We spent a lot of time in shelters under the house waiting for bombs."

There were tears at the emotional reunion - but they could not stop for long. The group then continued through Poland, stopping off in Poznan, before heading towards the border with Ukraine.

Once they got through the busy vehicle checkpoint, they drove on towards Kyiv on roads that had been bombed and rebuilt.

"It kind of goes bump bump bump... but they're putting it back together really quickly," said Danny.

It was dark when the van arrived in Kyiv, but there was a welcome party waiting for their arrival.

Katya's mother Nadia, partner Dima and son Leo now live in the city, and were there to greet them, clearly relieved to be reunited after nine months apart.