A lawyer who fled Ukraine with her young son a year ago has set up a new life in Hampshire but says she still cries at night.
Yulia Dubovyk and her nine-year-old son Damir travelled seven hours on foot from Kyiv to Poland to find safety before settling in the UK via the Homes for Ukraine scheme in April 2022.
Acting as a single mother and unable to work as a lawyer, Ms Dubovyk lost her confidence and felt like she was starting her life from the very beginning again.
But after living with a host for four months the 38-year-old moved into her own apartment near Winchester.
“I’m smiling during the day and crying at night,” she told the Standard in an interview for World Refugee Day.
“Because my husband is there, I [can’t] move on.
“Some people say that Ukrainians have post traumatic stress syndrome, but we actually don’t have ‘post’ because we’re still in this.”
In Ukraine she worked in constitutional law, including for a member of parliament.
In the UK she works at the local library and as a translator for Winchester City Council, helping to integrate other Ukrainians into life in Britain.
“To become a lawyer here, I would have to study again because we have a totally different system of law,” she explained.
“I really hope that one day I will [go] back home and I can continue my [law] practice so while I’m here I just have a mission to learn some new skills, to make life here for myself easier.”
Ms Dubovyk said one of the hardest challenges is living away from her husband, who had to stay in Ukraine where he works and volunteers.
In Winchester, her son Damir is integrating into school and took part in a lcaol concert.
Ms Dubovyk said: “Sometimes we take part in such a concert just to say to people that we exist, that we are still here, that the war is still existing and to gather some money to help Ukrainians.”
On World Refugee Day she thanked the Government and British people for their support.
“We feel confident that if something happens, we can ask for help which really helps because when we just arrived, we really didn’t understand what’s going on, how to apply for a job.
“We learned about International Rescue Committee, which helps Ukrainians with different courses, like how to find a job. So I finished three courses.
“One of them was [for] public service interpreter. I’m actually not a professional interpreter or translator.
“I studied English at school and it was more than 20 years ago. So I had to revise everything…because I never used the English language in my adult life.”
Her message to the Ukrainians rebuilding their lives in the UK is clear: “Stay strong, the war will be finished and we will be home again.
“Learn as much as you can because when it will come time to rebuild our Ukraine, we can use all this experience.
“We can change many things we wanted to change before the war.”
As of February this year, local councils have helped 163,500 Ukrainians settle in the UK.
There have been 225,278 visas granted on the Ukraine Visa Schemes since their introduction, with 30 percent on the Ukraine Family Scheme and 70 per cent on the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme.
World Refugee Day is an international day set by the United Nations to honour refugees globally.
It falls each year on June 20 and acknowledges “the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution”.
