Fleeing Ukraine: 'I needed to be strong for my daughter'

Kateryna Sievodnieva, 32, is now living and working in Cumbria

This is the second time Kateryna Sievodnieva will see in the new year thousands of miles away from her home in war-torn Ukraine. She is rebuilding her life and career in the UK, after fleeing the south-eastern city of Melitopol with her young daughter.

Ms Sievodnieva said she is grateful to the many people who have helped her and her daughter reach safety

On 24 February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine.

Ms Sievodnieva said, that morning, her life "changed forever".

She and her husband woke up to the sounds of planes flying overhead and bombs exploding.

Russian troops were roaming their city, the lights started going out and the mobile networks had gone down.

All the shops and supermarkets were being looted, she said.

Ms Sievodnieva was left trying to look after her five-year-old daughter in a war zone.

The south of Ukraine had always been an area abundant with crops of wheat, sunflowers and vegetables.

Ms Sievodnieva said "everything vanished".

'We had nothing'

Amid days of shelling, her daughter had stomach pains so severe that the doctor initially thought it was appendicitis.

The ambulance would not have been able to reach them at night because of the curfew.

It turned out her daughter had been so scared of the explosions she had become severely constipated.

Ms Sievodnieva said she was frustrated trying to find medication and confronted a Russian soldier who told her they were there to liberate them.

"I told them to tell that to my child who needs medicine which we can't get because of them," she said.

Ms Sievodnieva said her daughter's life changed so many times but she is "getting better now"

The event that tipped them over the edge was shelling on their daughter's birthday.

"It was dreadful - when you can't even buy a cake or gift for your child like a normal person," she said.

She managed to rustle up a cake with ingredients she could find.

That night they decided to leave.

In April 2022 Ukrainian and Russian forces were locked in combat along a 300-mile (480km) frontline in eastern Ukraine

The family spent weeks travelling to the border, sleeping in their car or staying in the houses of villagers who welcomed them along the way.

When they drove along the front line, Ms Sievodnieva said it looked like everything had been torn apart.

"Hungry animals roamed and houses were in ruins," she said.

Ms Sievodnieva and her daughter finally crossed the border into Poland in April, leaving her husband behind.

Since Russia’s invasion, Ukraine has banned men of fighting age from leaving the country unless they have a valid exemption.

"My daughter kept screaming and crying that we forgot daddy," she said.

"I needed to be strong."

In Poland, Ms Sievodnieva and her daughter slept in a sports hall alongside more than 1,000 people where there was a "constant stench", she said.

They decided to go to Germany.

She met a British journalist at the station who asked her why she wanted to go to the country.

"In that moment, I had no answer," she said.

While in Germany, the British journalist helped Ms Sievodnieva find the UK government's Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Launched in March 2022, almost 100,000 refugees took up the offer to stay with a sponsor in the UK for up to six months.

Ms Sievodnieva and her daughter stayed in a German camp and then stayed with a young German couple while they waited for their UK visa

When they arrived in Britain they had nothing.

"I didn't know where Carlisle or Cambridgeshire was located but it didn't matter to me," Ms Sievodnieva said.

She said their sponsors Steve and Ellie Blake became like a real family.

But still her daughter couldn't sleep and often woke at night remembering the shelling in Ukraine.

Ms Sievodnieva said it was very difficult when they first arrived in Britain

Because she was in a new country, Ms Sievodnieva had to learn everything again.

"I felt like a little child being taught how to navigate hospitals, how to pay bills," she said.

"Everything was new. It was very hard."

"But I understood that my daughter was by my side and she needed me to be strong."

Kateryna now works with children with special needs at a school in Cumbria

Ms Sievodnieva, who had just been awarded a PhD in Ukraine when the war started, got a job in a school in Cumbria as a learning support assistant.

She said it was “very scary” to start work in a new place.

"When you work with children they feel everything, you can't deceive them," she said.

As the fighting continues in Ukraine, Ms Sievodnieva said she was very grateful to her colleagues and to everyone who helped her and her family along the way.