When Dana and her family were forced to flee their home in Ukraine in 2022, they never imagined that three years on there would still be no prospect of them being able to return.
Dana had just finished her schooling, and was hoping to go to university. Her mum Olena was a project manager and engineer at a large hydro-electric power station in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine.
Her grandparents Alex and Nadiia were both retired – Alex, too, had been an engineer and the technology manager at the power station.
But their lives changed overnight on February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded their country.
Suddenly, their town in the Kherson region – a town which had grown up around the power station – was under Russian occupation.
“There were tanks and soldiers in our city,” Olena said. “There was a curfew, and different restrictions. It was not safe.”
For more than two months, they lived under Russian occupation. Then they fled, all together as a family.
Their journey to the UK and eventually to York was not an easy one, however.
First, like so many fleeing Ukrainians, they went to Poland.
Unable to settle, they moved on to Romania, and then Hungary. Eventually, someone they knew helped them to come to the UK.
The charity York City of Sanctuary found a sponsor in York who generously offered them a house in the city centre where they could all live together as a family.
After ten months, City of Sanctuary, with the help of the Christian housing charity Restore York, helped them find longer-term private rental accommodation in the city, where they could remain together.
Slowly, they are rebuilding their shattered lives. Dana took her A-levels at York College, and is now studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of York.
Olena has found work as a supply teaching assistant, working mainly with nursery and primary school children.
Pensioners Alex and Nadia do voluntarywork in York – Alex with St Leonard’s Hospice, Nadiia with a local youth club. Both take regular English classes to try to improve their English.
“We are together – that is very good,” Alex said. “With the support of the British people, and the government, we are more secure.”
But their lives are, in many ways, still in limbo. Olena’s work is intermittent. She’d love to find something more permanent, and more in line with the kind of work she did in Ukraine. But that’s proving very difficult, she says.
They are also worried about the future. Their visas have been extended for 18 months – but none of the family really knows what will happen after that. “I am absolutely worried about the future,” Olena said.
All agree that they would never have imagined, when they fled their homes in 2022, that three years later they would still be living in exile.
“Nyet! Nyet!” says Alex, when asked if he’d thought then he may never be able to return.
“We absolutely expected that we would be able to return home!” Olena says.
The sad reality is that they have no home to return to.
“Our home is destroyed, our jobs destroyed, our territory occupied,” Olena said.
In another devastating blow, they learned that in 2023 the power station where two generations of the family had worked and which was the mainstay of their home town had also been destroyed.
There was an explosion which tore it apart, Olena says – it has never been quite clear exactly what happened. “But when it was destroyed, we were really sad,” Dana says, speaking for all of them.
They yearn for peace in their home country – but insist that it cannot come at any cost. Russia must give back the territory it invaded – including their own home region, they say.
“We hope that there will be peace soon,” Olena said. “We want peace in our country, we pray for the future.”
“But Russia invaded Ukraine,” Dana adds. “It was illegal. Ukraine wants its territories back.”
The family’s shock at what happened still lingers. “It is the 21st Century, the modern world!” Olena says.
For now, they are focussed on their lives here in York. They are hugely grateful for the welcome they have received here – from the people of Britain and York, and from charity York City of Sanctuary.
“We really appreciate the support of the British people,” Olena said. “Now we are in a safe condition.”
They are doing their best to integrate, by finding jobs and volunteering. And there is also a strong Ukrainian community now in York, from which they draw comfort.
That community will be coming together soon to celebrate Easter in traditional Ukrainian style – with Ukrainian Easter cakes, and hand-decorated boiled eggs.
Then, on May 15, they will be coming together again to celebrate Vyshyvanka Day – a national celebration of everything Ukrainian, including the distinctive embroidered national costumes known as vyshyvankas.
For the third year in a row, they will be celebrating the day at the historic Merchant Taylors’ Hall.
There will be traditional vyshyvanka costumes; Ukrainian food; music from a Ukrainian choir and band; and children’s entertainment.
The celebrations will begin with a raising of the Ukrainian national flag outside the Merchant Taylors’ Hall.
“It is great that we can come together as a community to celebrate our culture – and to celebrate it in such a beautiful, historic hall,” Dana said.
As to the future of their country… “The news is really upsetting us,” Alex said.
“Every time you open the newspaper it is more destruction, more killing. Even after three years.”
Which is why Vyshyvanka Day is so important to celebrate this May. Amongst all the bleak news, it brings some joy and hope to the Ukrainian community in York.