We wanted our three sons to grow up without the fear of war

There were constant sleepless nights, anxious days and then the very cold and dark winter of 2025–2026. Our youngest son, still a newborn, would startle at the explosions of drones and missiles. Our older children had already learned to hide in shelters at school and at home, wherever they happened to be when the air-raid siren sounded.

Our family found itself in an atmosphere of comfort, acceptance, care and love. We are endlessly grateful to USPUK and our consultant, Nadiia, for the professional support, the successful move and the opportunity for our three children to live and study without the physical and psychological pressure of war.

Olia, Oleksandr and their sons’ Story, in their own words:

We are a large family from Kyiv, and I would like to share our experience of moving to the United Kingdom. My name is Olia. My husband, Oleksandr, and I have three sons: Oleksandr, who is 13 years old; Yevhen, who is eight; and Mykola, who is one.We had a very good life in Kyiv until the war came to us. We hoped that this nightmare would end quickly, but unfortunately, it did not. The war continued to intensify.

There were constant sleepless nights, anxious days and then the very cold and dark winter of 2025–2026. Our youngest son, still a newborn, would startle at the explosions of drones and missiles. Our older children had already learned to live through this frightening reality. They hid in shelters at school and at home, wherever they happened to be when the air-raid siren sounded.

I continued to hope that the situation would improve, but it did not. That was when I made the difficult decision to leave the country. Knowing that the United Kingdom supports Ukraine and Ukrainians, I began looking for opportunities for our family to move to a peaceful and strong country, where we could continue living and our children could continue their education. It is deeply painful to me that the war has forced us to live and educate our children outside Ukraine.

The process of moving to the United Kingdom proved to be very complicated. We needed to find a person — a sponsor — who would be willing to support us and welcome a large Ukrainian family into their home and their life. I asked the charity USPUK for advice about the best way to proceed. Searching through the internet felt risky because there were many scammers and so much was unclear.

With hope for the best and positive thoughts, I completed several application forms in December 2025. In some applications, I included myself and two of our sons, while in others I included my husband and one of our sons. I submitted our details separately several times because I believed this might give us a better chance of finding available rooms with a potential sponsor.

We did not have any friends or acquaintances in the United Kingdom, so there was no one else we could ask for help apart from the consultants at USPUK. Then, thanks to Nadiia, USPUK case worker, her persistence and dedicated work, a miracle happened. On Sunday, 8 March 2026, late in the evening, I received a message from Nadiia saying that a potential sponsor had been found for all of us.

At first, I did not believe it. I thought it might be a joke and that someone had decided to play a cruel trick. I could barely wait until morning before contacting USPUK to ask whether they really had a consultant named Nadiia. They replied very quickly and confirmed that Nadiia was one of their charity consultants and that everything she had told me was true.

I was incredibly happy to receive such positive news. Meanwhile, Kyiv was still being attacked every night. We lived in the Solomianskyi district, and there had been many strikes close to our home, affecting both residential and non-residential buildings.

Nadiia and I began communicating regularly. She explained clearly and understandably which steps we needed to take, and we completed them together. Nadiia carried out all the organisational work: preparing the documents, organising online meetings and our introduction to the sponsor, uploading and submitting the documents, and arranging our biometric appointments in Kyiv. This was highly responsible and detailed work.

We are sincerely grateful to our consultant, Nadiia, for always staying in contact with us, providing professional advice on the issues that concerned us, helping us remain optimistic and not allowing us to lose hope during moments of anxiety. She supported us effectively in preparing to communicate with our sponsor and helped us with many other important matters.

Our family received our visas through the Homes for Ukraine programme very quickly. Only one month passed between 8 March, when Nadiia found a sponsor for us, and 9 April, when we received our visas. We began preparing mentally and physically for the move. As there were five of us, including a baby, we were very worried about the long journey and about meeting new people. However, our sponsor turned out to be a very positive and kind person. Our family found itself in an atmosphere of comfort, acceptance, care and love.

We are endlessly grateful to USPUK and our consultant, Nadiia, for the professional support, the successful move and the opportunity for our three children to live and study without the physical and psychological pressure of war.

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