Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘IN CRISIS, WE ARE UNITED’
A Ukrainian woman living in Canterbury has told how Ukrainian ex-pats have banded together in crisis to support their country.
Mother-of-two Oksana Styles, 46, responded with “shock, devastation and horror” to Russia’s invasion.
“For me and for 45 million other Ukrainians, we are shocked,” she said. “And we just don’t know what is the way out, because it seems like no sanctions will work on Putin. I just don’t see what is the way out.”
The teacher, who moved to England in 2006, lives in St Augustine’s Road with her husband and two sons.
But her family and friends still live in Ukraine, and have been forced to take shelter in basements and subways as they shield from Russian air raids. “My friends in Kyiv have stayed,” she said.
“I offered help - I offered them to come to Britain or to meet them in any European country - but they said ‘no we want to stay in our city, we want to be there, it’s our city, we want to protect it’.” Martial law has been declared in Ukraine, where residents are taking up arms to help defend their country. And across Kent, Ukrainians are mobilising to help support the fierce resistance being shown by their country people.
Some have travelled to a store in Folkestone, to buy surplus Army supplies to send home to fighters on the front line. Among them is Nastia Nizalova, 25, a former Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar School pupil.
She told how the entire Ukrainian community in the UK is working together – co-ordinated via social media – to do everything possible to support the war effort back home.
Social media groups have also been swamped with offers of support from British nationals, and efforts to co-ordinate collections.
Nastia said: “I’m collecting supplies because that is right now the most important thing.
“At least for the moment, this is the best thing I can do from here.
“We have something worth fighting for. We’re protecting our country.” Responding to the outpouring of support, Oksana said: “Ukrainians all over the world - they’re united.
“They are sending aid, helping, organising, packing. My friend’s son has volunteered to drive a van all the way to Ukraine packed with equipment and medical aid.
“People are trying to do everything just to help.
“It sums up the essence of Ukrainians: in crisis, they are united, they are one, because they have one enemy.”