Exclusive interview with war evacuees facing their first Christmas away from loved ones in Ukraine

Svitalana Vordzkina and her husband Ruslan Vordzkin are now looking after Svitlana’s father and stepmother, Sergii and Ganna Shygimaga, at their home in Standish after the older couple fled the conflict and found refuge in the borough in May.

When the Russian invasion began on February 24, the Shygimagas spent months living in fear and deprivation in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv. The first Sergii and Ganna knew of the attack on their homeland was when bombs begn falling on and destroying their neighbourhood.

They managed to survive by hiding in their cellar, along with their daughter-in-law, Irina and grandson, Nazar, despite the basics of life – including food, water and electricity – became scarce, and the journey outside on the streets to find anyway meant a huge risk to their lives. Things were so bad that they were all forced to drink their own urine at one point.

Their son, also Sergii, was sent to the front-line, because of the rule that all males aged 18 to 60 are barred from leaving and must fight in defence of the nation. They have not heard from him in a long while and do not know if he is still alive. Svitlanna knows for a fact that one of her friends still in Ukraine, has been killed.

Sergii, 68, said: “Our lives have changed and done a complete 180. In Ukraine, now since the war, come nine o’clock, the Russains start bombing and so we had to stay in the cellar to shelter from the shelling.”

Ruslan, 48, said: “When they came to the UK, they had so many thing to sort out because they were basically starting a new life and leaving their old one behind. They had to get sorted out with doctors and things like that, and they’ve started learning English at college. They have had a warm welcome from people on the streets and in public.”

Ganna, 56, said: “The hardest part about adjusting to life here has been the language barrier. It’s hard when we don’t understand the language and what people are saying.”

Sergii said: “The hardest thing of all has been leaving my son behind in Ukraine because he has to stay and fight. We haven’t heard from him, there’s been no communication and we don’t know if he is okay. We miss everything, we miss our lives. We left everything behind. Ukraine was our home, our motherland.”

Svitlanna, 45, said: “They just took a small case with a few things in and their old lives ended there. They have no more family left there other than my brother, but we do not know what the situation is from him, we haven’t had any contact from him. They will probably live out the rest of their lives here now. War has completely turned everything they knew upside down.”

Irina and Nazar have been staying with a sponsor family in the North West and were supposed to be there until next March, however, the sponsor family have asked if they can find somewhere else to live before Christmas. Svitlanna said: “It’s all very stressful. I don’t know where they will both live yet.”

In June, Svitlanna suffered a stroke and spent a period in hospital, she also lives with long-term illness and uses a wheelchair. Despite these setbacks, she has been working tirelessly alongside her husband and friend Oleg Sinechko. Together, they have been collecting, storing and transporting a number of loads of humanitarian aid to be taken to the border and distributed to the places in Ukraine that are in most desperate need. They have contacts working at the border to get these vital items to the hardest hit areas.

Oleg’s son Alexander and his sister Christina founded 3D fight club which stages mixed martial arts (MMA) events to raise money to send aid to help people living through the war in Ukraine. They recently staged a fight night at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre, in Trafford Park, Manchester.

Alexander said: “We set it up as a charitable organisation because of what’s happening in Ukraine; we wanted to do something to help. All the funds go to help the people in Ukraine. We raised £3,500 from the Manchester event and we are planning on another MMA event in February to be staged in London.”

Oleg said: “February 24 2023 is the day we are planning on putting on this fight show, to mark a year since the Russian invasion. We will be having Ukrainian fighters against opponents from all over the world, it’s going to be a big event.”

Towards the end of the intereviews, the group made a video call with one of their contacts in Ukraine, Oleskii Rud, who is organising and distributing the humanitarian aid items across the most affected areas in the war-torn country.

He said: “Thank you so much for all of your efforts. We have got many vital aid items to people in desperate need. It is very cold here now and people need things like socks, boots, gloves and sleeping bags. We are always desperate for generators because the power supply has been cut-off and hospitals treating the sick and injured really, really need these. We’d like to also thank the British people for helping us, we are very grateful.”

Between them, they are now collecting and planning their next delivery of urgent aid items to be taken the border.