I had to leave Kyiv to keep my children safe
Maidenhead: Reflections from a refugee, as war in Ukraine enters third year
A Ukrainian refugee, who found safety for her family in Maidenhead, has shared her story of the first days of war and adapting to life in the UK.
Viktoriia Lahodynska, 33, found her Kyiv home was suddenly on the frontlines when Russia began its invasion in February 2022.
As a mass bombing campaign of the city began, civilians found shelter in Kyiv’s underground metro system and scarce bomb shelters.
With her husband Alexander fighting in the army, Viktoriia along with two children – Bohdan, now 11, and nine-year-old Elizabeth – as well as their grandmother, spent days in their basement.
“We didn’t have beds, but we had water and electricity,” Viktoriia said.
“It was quite cold, but it was better than what some people had.”
As civilians rallied to help the war effort her thoughts changed to what she could do.
Viktoriia said: “It was crazy looking in the news and reading all the horrible stuff, so I was going crazy, I decided to go to the school to help.”
Prior to the conflict, Viktoriia worked as a teacher at a school which became the base for civilians mobilised into military units.
“I was volunteering there working really hard day and night all the time,” she said.
“It was a real nightmare.”
“Whole families came – sometimes older people, fathers and sons – they wanted just to fight and protect us but our guns were really rubbish – a lot of them were older than me.”
Over the coming days, fierce battles took place in the Kyiv suburbs, notably in Bucha and Irpin.
“I remember one night we lost 90 people, they didn’t come back.
“You can’t imagine – some of these people didn’t tell relatives to not make them panic.”
Russian forces soon surrounded the Ukrainian capital and supplies of food became scarce – resupply was only made possible through dangerous night-time drives.
This was how Viktoriia’s children managed to escape,
along with their grandmother. In a convoy, through a forest in darkness.
Viktoriia remained in Kyiv, working to deliver food across the city in a converted ambulance that had been used to transport dead bodies.
After 40 days, and speaking with her husband, Viktoriia decided to leave the country with her children and found a route to the UK through the refugee sponsorship scheme.
Alexander remains in Ukraine helping the military.
“I remember I stayed one night in London,” she said.
“It was so noisy with all the ambulance sirens – I was having a lot of flashbacks.
“But Maidenhead is so nice, it’s like a small village to me –
coming from Kyiv.”
Unable to rent a place for her family on a teaching assistant’s salary, Viktoriia and her family found a sponsor who purchased a flat to rent to them.
“I’m really glad for my sponsors,” she said.
“They’re like my second family, because I’ve got children and a dog it was hard to find us space.”
Viktoriia now works as a dog walker and her children both go to school in Maidenhead.
She also supports fellow displaced Ukrainians and their children at Maidenhead Synagogue, where regular English lessons are held to help them transition to life in a new country.
“I remember just one girl [at the synagogue] was crying because she lost her brother in the war,” Viktoriia said.
“We were going to light a candle and she didn’t want to because she was so scared of the fire. It was really upsetting.”
President Zelenky said this week that Russia’s war in Ukraine, now in its second year, had claimed the lives of 31,000 Ukrainians.
Viktoriia said: “Sometimes my blood’s just boiling. I do feel useless sometimes because all my family stayed in Ukraine.
“But my children are in a safe place, they’re learning English at great schools, and the war will come to an end soon. It will come to an end.”