From Kyiv to Glasgow The inside story of one Ukrainian family’s desperate escape to Scotland
The Abramov family fled Ukraine without any idea where they’d find a home … until the Smith family in Glasgow stepped forward to offer them shelter. Our Writer at Large recounts a remarkable tale of hope and friendship in the shadow of war, and a battle to reach safety in the face of Britain’s torturous refugee system
IT was on the ninth day of the war that Vlad and Natallia decided they needed to take their six-year-old daughter Margarita and flee for their lives from Kyiv.
They had spent the previous days and nights living in an improvised bomb shelter in their hallway. “Warplanes were flying overhead. The explosions were so bad the house was shaking,” Vlad explains. “Natallia had to cover Margarita with her body and I covered both of them with mine.”
Life has been a blur since February 24. When Natallia woke up on the morning of the invasion, she jad no idea her country was at war. “A colleague texted me near six and said ‘what are we going to do?’. I didn’t understand what she meant.” Natallia went online and discovered Russia had invaded. “Later that morning the first Russian fighter planes flew over our home.” Since then, she has felt nothing but “anger and hate towards the Russian government”.
As the assault intensified, the couple had to tell Margarita what to do if they were killed in front of her. “It was hard,” Vlad says, in nearperfect English. “We explained what to do if we weren’t moving. It still hurts me now to think about it: looking in your daughter’s eyes when she’s asking ‘why won’t you be moving?’. I told her that would mean we were dead, and we couldn’t help her anymore, that she should call Natallia’s family and try to save herself. Don’t sit beside us, we said, save yourself.”
Today, the family is en route to Scotland as refugees. They have been offered shelter by a Glasgow family under the Homes for Ukraine scheme after Scottish refugee workers paired them up. The system, however, has been severely criticised for its complexity, slowness and unfairness. Britain is the only European country that requires visas for Ukrainian refugees.
While the family may be safely out of Ukraine, leaving home broke their hearts. Natallia’s father died shortly before the invasion. It is now 40 days since his death, Natallia explains. In the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, that is a significant date: a time when families pay respects to their dead.
The Abramovs had to rush funeral arrangements. “He was cremated because we were supposed to bury him in a different region of Ukraine, but we never received the ashes and he can’t be properly buried,” Vlad explains. Natallia begins to cry, the agony of grief etched on her face. “She doesn’t even know where the ashes are.”
Natallia has also left her brother behind. “He’s waiting his turn to join the army,” she explains. “He has to protect our country, risk his life.”
During their escape from Kyiv, the family drove for 12 straight hours to the border with the word “Child” pasted to their windscreen in case Russians opened fire. Margarita had to wear nappies as there was no possibility of stopping.
What made the journey even more terrifying is the fact that Vlad is a Russian national who settled in Ukraine years ago and married into a Ukrainian family. A UkranianRussian marriage is as common as an EnglishScottish marriage so there are tens of thousands of couples in the same predicament as the Abramovs. Although Vlad loathes his homeland today, that wouldn’t have stopped Ukrainian military mistaking him for “a spy