Billionaire’s welcome to Ukrainians
PHONES 4U founder John Caudwell has flipped the fortunes of a traumatised Ukrainian family by bringing them to his £12million estate.
Billionaire Caudwell, 69, and his partner Modesta Vzesniauskaite, 38, welcomed the first of two families they are housing on Wednesday.
The mum and two young boys will live in a self-contained two-bed apartment on Caudwell’s Staffordshire estate.
In a post on social media, the businessman said it had not been easy to help the families under the Government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme.
But he added that hearing the mother’s story over dinner when they arrived was “tear-jerking”.
Former Olympic cyclist Modesta, who can speak to their guests in Russian, earlier told how in 1991, at the age of eight, she ran home from school “terrified” after an alarm sounded and teachers feared a Russian invasion.