To mark one year since Russia invaded Ukraine, Sian Norris spoke to guests and hosts on the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Published in conjunction with the Kyiv Post
“We thought to ourselves: we can sit here and get really upset about what we are seeing on the news,” explains Sean. “Or we can do something about it. We’re not politicians. We’re not diplomats. We’re not soldiers. But we didn’t want to sit here and feel helpless. We wanted to do something”.
For Sean and Shahidul, that ‘something’ was opening their home to Dymtro, a Business Studies student from Ukraine.
It’s now a year since Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine, and seven years since the 2014 invasion of Crimea. When Russia’s tanks first crossed the border and missiles rained on historic cities, Putin boasted he could get his war finished in three days. Now, 365 days later, the war has left thousands dead and millions displaced, with 162,700 Ukrainian refugees coming to the UK.
The majority of those arriving are, like Dymtro, on the Homes for Ukraine scheme: a Government initiative set up to match UK hosts with people fleeing the war. Dymtro, Sean and Shahidul met via the Reset UK Charity, and the three have been living together since the summer when Dymtro arrived just before his birthday.
“It was my birthday and it was so crazy because I don’t know this country, I don’t know how things worked,” Dymtro tells Byline Times, recalling his arrival. “I always celebrated with family and friends. But now here I was, with two strangers. They are not strangers anymore”.
There was cake to celebrate his birthday and from the very beginning, Dymtro says, he was “very welcomed. And that is worth a lot when you just left your country, you left your family, you left everything. To feel safe and comfortable and welcomed”.
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Iryna’s arrival to the UK from Lviv also coincided with a special occasion: this time, Christmas. Having remained in Ukraine, where she worked in a specialist cheese retailer, for the first months of the war, she made the painful choice to leave.
“It was not an easy decision,” she tells Byline Times. “Because it changed everything. I don’t have friends here, or the language, or work. But in Ukraine it was really hard. We don’t have light [electricity] for most of the day. Sometimes just two or three hours”.
Reset UK matched Iryna with Molli and Jamie, a young couple who had recently bought their first home.
“We have a spare room,” says Jamie. “We are in the position where we can help someone. We felt like if the shoe was on the other foot, would we want someone to do the same for us? That’s the approach we took”.
Iryna joined Molli’s and Jamie’s family for Christmas. “It was so nice, there were so many presents and everyone was playing board games, even the older people. We don’t really do that in Ukraine”.
Seven months earlier, and Yulia also came to the UK from Lviv. She and her son Maks made the “awful” journey from Ukraine shortly after the war began. It was not easy. With so many frightened people crowding onto trains, fleeing the bombs and invading forces, she was forced to stand the whole way to Poland.
“We’ve never been to the UK before, so the decision was made quite spontaneous based on the desire to be safe,” Yulia shares with Byline Times. “When we arrived I had no idea how to start. Maks had a panic because of uncertainty and was missing his father. I had a broken arm and was absolutely devastated”.
The pair were hosted by Tina and Nick. “They opened not only their home but their hearts,” she says. “They always treated us as a part of the family and that massive support gave us power to move on”.
Yulia, Iryna and Dymtro are all working, with their hosts supporting them to find a job and helping with their CV.
“The guys have been very, very helpful to me,” says Dymtro. “They helped me to improve my CV, they helped me with everything that is here. And it’s so good to feel welcomed, when you find such hard circumstances”.
Starting his new job gave Dymtro the opportunity, too, to show his thanks to Sean and Shahidul for their kindness and friendship. He treated them to dinner at a local Ukrainian restaurant. “It was an incredibly kind and generous thing to do,” says Sean.
“He’s working, he’s studying, he’s learning English, he’s a superman all round,” adds Shahidul.