Deborah Amoda’s heart still races with fear every time she hears a loud noise. She can’t shake the memory of bombs crashing around her, the terror each time the air raid sounded and she had to sprint to the nearest shelter in Kharkiv, her home of three years as she studied medicine.
Six months on from the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, though the 19-year-old Nigerian has escaped to safety, she faces yet more anguish. All she wants is to be with her close family in the UK - but while Ukrainian nationals are welcomed to Britain, Deborah is being blocked from doing so. Instead, she is living hundreds of miles away in an unfamiliar city, alone.
