Refugees in UK recount harrowing stories two years after war began
The Russian tanks and troops had been gathering at the Ukrainian border for weeks.
But Elena Tomash and Diana Kocheva, both from Kyiv, never imagined an invasion would happen.
Then on February 24, 2022, their lives were turned upside down at lightning speed.
They became just two of the more than six million Ukrainian refugees displaced across Europe.
Each has a different story but they share a fear that they will never see loved ones again or be able to return to home.
They have built new lives in the UK, like many of the 283,000 Ukrainians who sought refuge in Britain under the Ukraine Family Scheme and Ukraine sponsorship programme. Despite the UK announcing an extension to the sponsorship programme until 2026, the future remains uncertain for Ms Tomash, 47, and Ms Kocheva, 28.
Ms Tomash lived in Kyiv and fled Ukraine with her sons, aged 16 and seven, two days after Russia invaded. The family tried to head for the border with the plan of joining her older daughter in France.
“I joined the thousands of others who tried to get on to the trains. It looked like an apocalyptic scene. It was a miracle we got to the train,” she said.
“We spent 34 hours crammed into a four-person compartment with 12 other people. It was very unpleasant. We got to France and stayed there a couple of months and I began looking for a sponsor in the UK.”
They were offered a place by a family in Kent in July 2022 and Ms Tomash found a job in advertising in London. But the five-and-a-half hour daily commute was too much for her and she managed to find a property in Battersea, closer to work.
“I still feel lonely though. Because I started work immediately, I didn’t have chance to socialise and make friends. I meet people at the school playground and in parks but I miss my friends,” she said.
She and her sons have taken part in a campaign to thank the British public for their kindness.
“I feel very grateful to the UK government for supporting our families. What it has done is priceless. It’s not about money; it is about caring for people living in the country and it does not matter if we are a UK resident or not.”
Ms Tomash fears she will never be able to return home and see her mother who lived in the northern town of Putyvl near the Russian border.
Ms Kocheva, an information technology developer, was on holiday surfing in Tenerife when the war broke out.
A message from her mother to say she was safe was the first she knew of the fighting. “I didn’t go back to Ukraine,” she told The National.
Her friends had a key to her apartment and they retrieved important documents and valuables to look after them.
“Two months later my home was destroyed,” she said. “I applied for the UK sponsor scheme … and managed to get a place in London.”
She had her own IT start-up but lost her equipment and funding when her apartment was destroyed. But in London, she found a job in IT and began helping other Ukrainians find professional work.
She has helped more than 700 people find work now.
She constantly fears for her mother who lives near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which has come under repeated attack.
Ms Kocheva never imagined the war would still be raging two years on. It has left her in a quandary as she has settled into the UK life.
“London is my home now but I still miss Ukraine and I do not know if I will ever return,” she said.