It’s a freezing snowy night, and villagers are huddled outside around a Christmas tree as an old woman and a toddler – two victims of a bloody conflict – step forward to turn on its lights.
Angelina Retunskaia, 84, and three-year-old Kira Hvozd hit the switch – and the local ladies’ choir bursts into a rendition of We Wish You A Merry Christmas.
Then, as the carol ends, it is the turn of other war refugees that little Arnside, in Cumbria, has taken to its heart – and tears flow as a group of Ukrainian women in the gathering sing a folk song from their faraway devastated land.
