I am so happy they have arrived,” says Olha Zuyk, embracing her daughter and two grandsons, who reached London from Ukraine just days ago. “I cried non-stop and I didn’t eat or sleep until they were here.”
This young family endured a journey of more than two weeks from western Ukraine to Wembley, where Olha lives. Despite being in London for less than three days, they are standing in a queue outside London’s largest Ukrainian school hoping for places for Oleh, eight and Danylo, five. St Mary’s Ukrainian school in Holland Park is a lifeline for refugees who haven’t secured a permanent London school place — and provides a small piece of normality for children whose education has been ripped apart by the war.
