Ukrainian women and children on Tyneside marked their country’s independence day with an emotional performance in the heart of Newcastle, six months on from Russia’s invasion.
A women’s choir, whose members have found refuge in the North East after being forced to flee their homes, sang their country’s national anthem as the Ukrainian flag was raised at Newcastle Civic Centre on Wednesday morning in a show of solidarity with the war-torn nation.
Olena Proskurina, who escaped Kyiv after the Russian invasion that began on February 24, has been living with a sponsor family in Gosforth since June and says the support she gets every day from Geordies who see her wearing a badge with her nation’s yellow and blue flag is “huge”. The 33-year-old, who had fled to Moldova and then Albania before managing to find a sponsor in the UK, added: “I left Kyiv immediately as soon as I heard the bombs and went west. It was terrible, it was so scary.
