Ukrainian teenager Kate Kozyrieva has told of the changes she has seen in her war-torn home country following a four-month stay with her relatives in Rowlands Gill.
Thirteen-year-old Kate travelled with her cousin Daniil Dushaiev earlier this year to stay with his sister and her husband, who settled in the Gateshead village two years ago. Slava Shumihin flew to Poland to bring her brother Daniil to the UK in April, after their mother Anhela, signed up to the Territorial Defence Force to fight against the Russian invasion in Ukraine's capital Kyiv and she decided that it was too dangerous for 15-year-old Daniil to stay at home.
While Slava was waiting in Poland to collect her brother, Kate's parents, who live just outside Kyiv, made the made the snap decision to evacuate her after the village next to theirs was bombed. "We had to go into the basement and we heard a lot of bombs and shooting,'" said Kate. "My parents made a really quick decision and drove me for 10 hours to the border, where I met Slava and Daniil. I left so quickly I was wearing my mum's shoes, which are two sizes too big, and my brother's hoodie."
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Kate arrived in Rowlands Gill with Daniil with just the clothes she was wearing, but quickly settled into the community, which has welcomed their temporary residents with open arms. And although Kate had enjoyed her time in the UK, she decided to head back to her home country last month after four months away from her parents, older brother and the family dog.
"I felt sad about leaving my cousin Daniil, my new friends and neighbours but I am happy to see my parents after four months of being separated," she said. "It's still dangerous in Ukraine but I wanted to be with my family as we’ve never been apart before.
"A lot of our friends have returned to Ukraine because they love Ukraine, we want to support our country to become independent and successful, so people want to continue living there. I feel like I have a second life in the UK with people around who love me , but I missed my family and I wanted to hug them so much.
"It is very good being at home now and I feel relatively safe. I have met with my friends and family and I am super happy to see everyone, although people are looking slightly more tense because of all the air sirens. I do think that my parents feel worried about my safety.
"Now the war does not affect me much because there are no strong hostilities in Kyiv as in the east of Ukraine, but Kyiv remains completely under the threat of missile attacks. In the city there are destructions that I can see, and many areas of local defence forces and destroyed buildings."
During her time in the UK, Kate attended St Thomas More RC School, in Blaydon, with Daniil, but has now returned to her old school in Ukraine. "I study online for a week and then offline for a week," she said. "But I think that I don’t have enough cool lessons like in England!
"I made a lot of new friends at St Thomas More School and at drama class. I will miss them very much and we are keeping in touch on social networks, and hope to meet them again. Depending on the situation in Ukraine I might come back, but I don’t know. I’ll miss our neighbours - they are amazing, I’ve never met such wonderful people.
"My UK friends Emily and Lily brought me a present of an album where they put our photos for the last three months at school. I miss my classmates , they were so kind to me and teachers who helped with lessons and translated part of them into Ukrainian.
"Almost all of my friends have returned to Ukraine, but my best friend Nastya has not returned yet and I hope she will come very soon. I do miss my cousin Slava, Daniil and Oleg and my friends from the UK."
Slava and her husband, Oleg, 40, have lived in Rowlands Gill for two years. In March, operations manager Slava told of the horror of the Russian troops invading her country. "The sky is red from explosions clearly visible from my family home in Kyiv. They are seeing this every day," said Slava, who organised a collection of humanitarian aid from the community in the early days of the conflict.
Both Slava's mother Anhela, 59, and Oleg's mother, Tetiana, 62, signed up as volunteers with the Territorial Defence Force in their home cities of Kyiv and Poltava respectively, and it was Slava's mum who suggested she arrange collections for the Defence Force.
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