Student hopes to return to help rebuild Ukraine

Sasha Shevchenko, who was forced to flee Ukraine aged 15, wants to return to her home country to help rebuild it

A teenager who left Ukraine after the Russian invasion, to settle in the UK, is getting ready to start university.

Sasha Shevchenko, then 15, had a minimal grasp of English when she left home, and first went to Poland with her mother and aunt, before they moved to the UK and eventually settled in Leominster, Herefordshire.

The teenager, now 18, successfully completed her A-Levels at Hereford Sixth Form College and next week starts her degree at Cardiff Metropolitan University, where she will study politics and international relations.

She said her ambition was eventually to return to Ukraine and help to rebuild the country, hoping her degree will help her to do this.

Thousands of displaced refugees have now been in the West Midlands for three years, many of them trying to adapt to life in a different country while being separated from loved ones.

'Community resilient'

Ms Shevchenko described how this summer she returned to Ukraine, to see relatives who moved to Kyiv for safety, for the first time since the invasion in 2022.

"I saw my family. Of course it was very scary because of the explosions, but still, it was a very good experience," she said.

She described how the community in Ukraine remained determined and resilient as the conflict continued.

"They could not sleep all night, but then they wake up in the morning and go live their lives," she said.

The student said there had been difficult times as she adjusted to life in the UK, but she had adapted.

On top of passing her GCSEs and A Levels, one of her other achievements was to pass her driving test. She said: "I had a very good instructor."