War in Ukraine: Family who fled Kyiv to Northern Ireland one year ago have been made welcome in Co Down

Now living in Co Down, she said: “I was born in Donetsk, I lived there when this conflict started in 2014. Then we moved to Kyiv. When the war started on February 24 it was really not expected.

“Yesterday I was remembering the day before the war, it was a usual day.

“Then I woke up at five o’clock, I heard a noise like bombs, I couldn’t believe it. It was a really horrible feeling. I started to look at social media and at the news and it was a wave of information. My head was shaking, everything was shaking.

“We lived in a three-floor apartment building. Every night we were living in the basement. We could hear all these bombs, all these noises.

“For seven days we didn’t go outside, we had some food and some water, but not much.

“After seven days I decided we needed to go. We got into a car and navigated our way out, there were a lot of cars on the roads, our soldiers were checking every car.

“We drove until we got to the border with Romania. When we crossed the border, the Romanian people were so happy to see us, it was something amazing.

“We stayed a little while in Romania then we decided to go to Ireland because I have some friends here.”

She added: “I’m still afraid to go back home, I don’t know when this war will end.

“Many of my friends have gone to other countries with their children, but also many remained, the bravest ones.

“They continue to go to work and try to lead an ordinary life, but the life we had before the war will not be the same.

“There is no guarantee of calm, the siren can sound at any moment and people are all under tremendous stress 24/7.

“Children are taught how to hide in shelters, adults are taught how to provide first aid. The men are almost all ready to go to the front at any moment.

“This is a different life, which we all have not prepared for and never wanted.”

Yuliia, her mother and her son Nikita, five, are living with a host family in Portaferry.

She said: “They are a very nice family, they help us all the time. They make us very welcome and we are happy to be here. I am so thankful to the people in Northern Ireland for helping us.”

Ian Snowden, who is leading the Ukrainian Refugee Support Team in Northern Ireland, said 1,855 Ukrainians have arrived under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme and 276 have moved here under the Ukraine Family Scheme.

He added: “A total of £1,184,750 has also been paid in ‘thank you’ payments to Homes for Ukraine hosts here to date.”

At Stormont yesterday speaker Alex Maskey led a minute’s silence at 11am to mark the one-year anniversary of the conflict while in London PM Rishi Sunak did likewise.