'I had to write my children's names on their hands'

Nadia Tikhonova now works for Rutland County Council in the social care services department

"I never could imagine that I would be writing the phone numbers, addresses and names on their hands," says a mother forced to leave Ukraine with her two children.

Nadia Tikhonova now lives in Oakham, Rutland, and helped form the first Ukrainian Rotary club in the UK, which is currently collecting wheelchairs, crutches and walking frames to send home to those in need.

The 41-year-old came to the UK in March 2022 from Irpin after Russia's invasion of her country.

"I will never forget those moments, and I will never want them to go through that again," she adds.

Ms Tikhonova said she was woken to the sound of shelling at 04:30 on 24 February 2022, but thought it would not last an hour.

"I even took my dog for a walk," she added.

However, when there was more shelling the following day, Ms Tikhonova "realised that it's time to escape".

"We took the kids, we sat in the car, and we drove, I think it was 19 hours to get to the western part of the Ukraine."

'Broken mentally'

Ms Tikhonova and her family first stayed in Burley-on-the-Hill with a host family for almost two years as part of the Homes for Ukraine initiative, before renting in Oakham.

Her husband is also in the UK with her, but she says plenty of family members are still in Ukraine.

"We are missing them, and we are in touch," she said.

"It is awful, and I can't blame the world that it's been a bit tired with this war, but it is still on.

"My mother-in-law works in the hospital, and she says it's getting more and more scary.

"It's in the centre of Kyiv, and she says there are days when the air alarm doesn't stop sounding.

"We hope that the war finishes really soon, but we realise that so many lives, even of those who never fought in the war, they will never come back from it.

"They are really broken mentally, because when you're living in that for more than three years, and you don't know whether you will wake up in the morning, whether your children will come back from school."

The Ukrainian Rotary Impact Club in Rutland was launched back in April

Ms Tikhonova is the joint chairperson of the Ukrainian Rotary Impact Club in Rutland, which officially formed in April with support from the Rotary Club of Rutland.

The group is currently collecting mobility equipment to send to Ukraine.

"With this project, and with us launching this club, we do two things," she said.

"Firstly, we are helping those who are there, those who struggle, those who lost their limbs, and it is in a great demand now, all this mobility equipment."

Ms Tikhonova said she also wanted to give back to repay the help and support they had been given in the UK by Rotary and other organisations.

"This project is probably the drop in the ocean, but if we can help at least a few people, at least someone, we will do something," she added.