War in Ukraine: TV reporter fled to safety in Belfast

Kateryna Fuglevych was working as a TV reporter in the Ukrainian city of Odesa when the war began

More than 2,650 Ukrainians have arrived in Northern Ireland since Russia invaded their country in February 2022.

One of them is former TV reporter and presenter Kateryna Fuglevych.

The 32-year-old has been living in Belfast and working in a creche since fleeing Ukraine last spring.

When the war began, Ms Fuglevych left Odesa, where she was working as a journalist, and travelled to join her parents in her home city of Kherson, which was under Russian control.

She told BBC News NI she thought she would be there for a few days but ended up living in the basement of her family home for two months.

"Thank God my grandfather built that basement," she said.

"But even when we were down there we could hear the bombs, the missiles - we barely slept.

"We just could not believe that this could happen, that the war would come to our land. But I had to be with my family.

"We would swap medicine and food with neighbours so everyone could survive."

Kateryna Fuglevych sheltered from bombs in the basement of her family home in Kherson

Ms Fuglevych then made the decision to leave Kherson with the help of a friend.

"I had 15 minutes to pack everything, my whole life, in my car and leave," she said.

"The roads were gone - they had been destroyed - so we had to follow people who knew the way through fields.

"It was eight hours, no water because I forgot water, and it was very scary.

"I was worried that Russians would recognise me as a journalist when I hit a checkpoint.

"When I first saw a Ukrainian soldier, I hugged him."

Kateryna Fuglevych in a Ukrainian TV studio before she fled to the UK

Ms Fuglevych eventually made it to Odesa but when bombing started there, she decided to leave Ukraine.

She drove to Hungary and onwards to France before getting a ferry to Dover in England, eventually ending up in Belfast in the same car in which she had fled Ukraine.

"That car saved my life. It's been through a lot," she said.

"You can imagine, it needs a lot of repairs."

Ms Fuglevych's home city of Kherson has been in the headlines this month following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam which has cause serious flooding of vast areas of land on both sides of the Dnipro river.

An aerial view of flooded homes in Kherson after the Nova Kakhovka dam breach

While her parents managed to make it to Odesa, many of Kateryna's relatives are still in Kherson.

"Every day they live in huge fear because they live under the shelling and the missiles. They are in danger," she said.

"The flood has caused so much damage, I was crying. I knew there were animals and older people who could not escape.

"My parents thought they had escaped when they got to Odesa but it's under attack too.

"I haven't seen them in a year but sometimes we can video call. You can't imagine how difficult it is."

'Now I work with children'

Ms Fuglevych has now been living in Belfast for eight months and says she is grateful for a chance to build a new life in Northern Ireland.

"It's very different to my life as a journalist," she said.

"I was speaking to politicians and celebrities and now I work with children, but it's great.

Kateryna Fuglevych pictured in the headquarters of BBC News NI in Belfast

"Belfast is amazing because of the people who are so kind and so pleasant when I'm talking about my parents, about my life.

"I know in Belfast in the past there were not such easy times so they feel in their soul how it is to try to live for Ukrainians.

"For me it's really very nice that I am here in Northern Ireland and I have a possibility to start a new life in Belfast."