‘It’s an extended family’: Grant Shapps and Ukrainian refugees describe living together

Published

2 years ago

February 24, 2023

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Grant Shapps and the Ukrainian family he took into his home 10 months ago have spoken to Sky News about the experience for the first time.

The cabinet minister, who lives with his wife and grown-up twins in his Hertfordshire constituency, joined the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which has seen British families open their doors to those fleeing the conflict.

They welcomed Snezhana Chaykina, her now seven-year-old son Nikita, and her 75-year-old mother Hanna, who left their home in Kyiv with their dog Max last year.

He said the scheme had been “overall a huge success” and a “sobering” experience, which had affected how he approached cabinet discussions on support for Ukraine.

Snezhana, an IT manager for a travel firm, left behind her husband and their new apartment to take a leap into the unknown when the Russian bombardment began.

The family crossed into Poland where they posted an advert on a Facebook group about the British scheme, which was spotted by Mr Shapps’ daughter.

They are all happily living in his home and expect to stay there for the coming months, he said.

“We had a happy life in Ukraine”, she said, until an early morning phone call from her sister in Germany last February.

“She told us there are bombs falling on Ukraine. I told her, you are kidding, it cannot be, it just sounds mad.

“Then I started to check the news and I found it. The war has begun. And of course, this forced us to leave the country.

“First, I thought that it would be for a couple of weeks, then a couple of months. Now it seems probably it might take a couple of years, I’m not sure.”

‘We’ve given your room to three Ukrainians and a dog’

Arriving last April, all three family members and the dog are sharing the old bedroom of Shapps’ eldest son, who was at university when the war broke out, and has now moved out.

“We told him we’ve given your room to three Ukrainians and a dog!”, Mr Shapps said.

Nikita attends the local school in Hatfield and can now speak and read English, while Snezhana works from home and is in regular touch with colleagues in Ukraine.

Her husband, who was given a medical discharge from the military with a leg injury, has recently travelled to Poland and hopes to reunite with his family in the UK.

She says she and Mr Shapps have “a lot in common” but that the pair do not discuss UK politics, except the Ukraine situation.

His wife Belinda had first raised the idea of taking in refugees, shortly before the conflict began.

“It’s just become completely normal, we pretty much operate as one family,” the energy secretary said, making a peanut butter sandwich for Nikita.

“We eat together, put on the dishwasher and those types of household things. It’s an extended family.”

Britain granted more than 150,000 visas under the Home for Ukraine scheme, and 218,000 in total through other schemes, including family reunion.

Host families were asked to commit to at least six months, and paid expenses at a flat rate of £350 a month.

But with no end in sight to the conflict, the latest figures show more than 4,200 Ukrainians received homelessness support from local authorities and some are sleeping rough.

Shapps hasn’t changed stance on small boat crackdown

A group of 70 cross-party MPs, including former home secretary Priti Patel, wrote to the government last week to call for more support.

In November, ONS data suggested 17% of Ukrainian adults who came on these schemes are now renting privately, while 59% were still living with a sponsor, despite most working.

Mr Shapps said: “I think we feel a lot in common with Ukrainians because we went through the Blitz and they’re going through their country being bombed, and against the odds, withstanding all that evil from Putin.

“I found it very helpful because every time we’re discussing what’s happening in Ukraine, in Cabinet, in the back of my mind or when I get home, I’m reminded about the reality of the policies and what it actually means.

“Literally in our own kitchen. I think it’s quite a salutary and sobering thing to experience government policy quite so close to home.”

But it has not changed his mind about the government’s attempts to crack down on small boats, some of them carrying people who have fled warzone.

Mr Shapps said: “My view is we can’t have a situation where there’s a way into this country by illegal means, by being people trafficked from countries which are already safe, like France.

“So it doesn’t change my view about that at all. It’s absolutely right that stopping the small boats is one of our top priorities.

“And that’s entirely different from being a country that has a big heart and always goes out of its way to help in the world.”

Other MPs who have taken in Ukrainian refugees include Conservative ministers Robert Jenrick and Victoria Prentis, Norfolk MP Duncan Baker and Middlesborough Labour MP Andy McDonald.

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At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

Published

6 hours ago

July 14, 2025

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At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.

Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.

The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.

It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.

The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.

Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.

But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.

It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.

Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.

Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.

That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.

The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.

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Meredith Kercher’s killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

Published

18 hours ago

July 13, 2025

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Meredith Kercher's killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.

Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.

He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.

Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.

Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.

Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.

The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.

Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.

The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.

Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.

Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.

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IDF blames ‘technical error’ after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike

Published

21 hours ago

July 13, 2025

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IDF blames 'technical error' after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike

The Israeli military says it missed its intended target after Gaza officials said 10 Palestinians – including six children – were killed in a strike at a water collection point.

Another 17 people were wounded in the strike on a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al Awda Hospital.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant but a “technical error with the munition” had caused the missile to fall “dozens of metres from the target”.

The IDF said the incident is under review, adding that it “works to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians as much as possible” and “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians”.

Officials at Al Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies after the Israeli strike on the water collection point and six children were among the dead.

Ramadan Nassar, who lives in the area, said around 20 children and 14 adults were lined up Sunday morning to fill up water.

When the strike occurred, everyone ran and some, including those who were severely injured, fell to the ground, he said.

In total, 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health officials said.

Two women and three children were among nine killed after an Israeli strike on a home in the central town of Zawaida, officials at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said.

Israel has claimed it hit more than 150 targets in the besieged enclave in the past day.

The latest strikes come after the Israel military opened fire near an aid centre in Rafah on Saturday. The Red Cross said 31 people were killed.

The IDF has said it fired “warning shots” near the aid distribution site but it was “not aware of injured individuals” as a result.

The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.

More than 58,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.

But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough, as a new sticking point emerged over the deployment of Israeli troops during the truce.

Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.