Mother feels ‘helpless’ watching air strikes over Ukraine after fleeing to UK

A Ukrainian artist who fled to the UK under the Homes for Ukraine scheme after the Russian invasion has said she feels “helpless” watching fresh barrages of air strikes hit her hometown.

Victoria Chichinadze, 42, left her home in Kyiv with her two teenage daughters for the safety of Burley in Wharfedale in West Yorkshire, but said it was a hard decision to leave her elderly mother in the Ukrainian capital.

Ms Chichinadze and her daughters, Vladislava, 13, and Nika, 15, arrived in the UK in August and, through the Government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme, were put in contact with Janet and Mark Cade and their son, Robin, with whom they have been living ever since.

Ms Chichinadze, a sculptor who specialises in casting bronze, said she stays awake most nights to keep track of social media and news reports of air strikes in Kyiv so she can alert her 80-year-old mother – who lives alone and has trouble hearing the air raid warnings.

Large areas of the capital were cut off from power and water supplies after Russian strikes on Monday hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities in an apparent retaliation for what Moscow alleged was a Ukrainian attack on its Black Sea Fleet over the weekend.

Ms Chichinadze told the PA news agency: “I’m very nervous and I can’t live normally because my thoughts and my soul is with my home in Ukraine.

“Just imagine all the people who you know and love, the beautiful buildings, your home, all ruined, but all you can do is just look and do nothing… that’s how I am feeling right now.

“It was horrible when I was inside, but when you’re on the outside it’s the most terrible feeling you can imagine because you feel helpless.”

Last month Ms Chichinadze’s partner, Uri, who has remained in Ukraine, was “knocked to the floor” by a nearby blast while he was walking to a doctor’s appointment.

Ms Chichinadze said it has been “exhausting” keeping track of the recent air strikes over Kyiv and she is concerned for her mother’s safety.

“She’s in a very dangerous situation but she doesn’t want to leave her home,” she said.

“I offered to make her a British visa but she doesn’t want to come, so I had to make her one without her knowing in case of an emergency so I can go and rescue her.

“I’m so nervous that she won’t hear the sirens so I contact her and make sure she goes to the cellar for safety.

“It’s exhausting for both of us.”

Mrs Cade said the Ukrainian family have “settled in well” but adjusting to life in the UK after having experienced war has not been easy, particularly for the teenagers.

“We live quite close to Leeds Bradford Airport and when planes started flying over, especially during the first couple of days, there was a bit of flinching because the sounds brought it all back,” she told PA.

Mrs Cade said the local school has been “great” at welcoming the family by offering support, providing uniforms and free school meals, and fundraising for Ukraine.

But she admitted it has been a challenge for the girls to start at an English school and they are “essentially having to work twice as hard as the other children”.

“The difficulty is – and I think this is true for many Ukrainian children – the girls were already partway through a system of schooling in Ukraine when they left,” she said.

“They’re now trying to balance UK schooling and Ukrainian schooling, which is hard.”

The ongoing tension between Ukraine and Russia has also led to a divide within Ms Chichinadze’s own family.

She no longer has any form of relationship with her brother, who is Ukrainian but lives in Moscow, and said her mother has also now cut ties with him over his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“He thinks Russia has no part in (the war), which obviously is not true,” Ms Chichinadze said.

“He believes Putin when he calls it a ‘special military operation’ and not a war and he thinks Ukraine is bombing itself.

“It’s really a tragedy because I think he is a nice man and he’s very clever, yet he doesn’t believe his own mother, who is in danger.

“I can’t say that he is a stupid person but I don’t know how someone can believe the TV over his own mother and sister.”

Prior to the war, Ms Chichinadze would travel to Russia for work and even had her artworks displayed in a Russian-themed exhibition at the 2016 Chelsea Flower Show in London.

She said it has been “painful” to have to cut all links with the country and rebuild her career in the UK, but added: “After all this, I refuse to work there ever again.”

With the help of her host family, Ms Chichinadze has set up an English version of her website and hopes to continue producing her artwork from the UK.

Mrs Cade said: “Victoria is quite unique because she is a female sculptor specialising in bronze and she has built her own foundry down the road from her house in Ukraine.

“Her work is so beautiful and if she can begin producing it again in the UK then that makes life so much easier for her.”

– For more information about Ms Chichinadze’s sculptures visit http://www.chichinadze.com/index.php/en/