Ukraine war’s UK refugees reveal new lives and near-death experiences

Published

2 years ago

September 3, 2023

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced millions of people to flee their homes. Almost 170,000 of them have spent much of the last 18 months navigating new lives in the UK.

Sky News spoke with five refugees who shared their stories of starting over in Britain, risking life and limb to visit their homeland, and their hopes and fears for the future of the war.

‘Helpless as my family preps for nuclear disaster’

Knowing her family is preparing for the “end of the world” near an imperilled nuclear plant makes the safety of the UK bittersweet for Alyona Kaporina.

The director, 39, has found support in her new home of Manchester, but she feels “completely helpless” knowing her sister, Valentina, and niece, Agnessa, are “living in fear” in a village close to the Zaporizhzhia power station.

In June and July, the plant was threatened by a collapsed dam, explosives allegedly installed by Russians, and power outages caused by military activity.

“These were very exhausting weeks. We are preparing and living in constant expectation of the end of the world,” says Agnessa, with Ms Kaporina acting as a translator.

“We have been living with a sense of fear… no sedatives work any more.”

While her family stocks up on iodine tablets, tapes their windows airtight and hermetically seals their food in case of nuclear disaster, Ms Kaporina waits nervously for news 1,600 miles away.

“It is not just words, it is a real threat,” she says.

“In June, it really scared me and my relatives, and they really prepared. I was really very nervous.”

Fighting on the information front

Unable to help her family on the frontline, Ms Kaporina, originally from Kyiv, has devoted herself to what the Ukrainians call the “information front” by organising a rally in Piccadilly Gardens every Saturday.

Refugees meet to speak in their native language, sing Ukrainian songs and to remind the UK the war is still raging.

“I think the world is a little bit tired maybe about news from the war. And people in Ukraine are tired but our soldiers continue to die defending our country,” she says.

Last week, a close friend’s husband was among them, leaving behind his pregnant wife.

“It happens every day. Sometimes you don’t know those people, sometimes you know those people who died for your freedom, your independence.”

Explaining why her group gathers every Saturday, Ms Kaporina says: “Russia continues to attack our civilian people, our civilian cities, and we never know when it will be over. We [don’t] have any right to forget.”

People from England, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Lithuania join her each week to raise awareness.

“It is really important and it’s really [a] pleasure and we are grateful to a lot with people for their support.”

Ms Kaporina says the UK has been very welcoming since she arrived in May last year, but she and other Ukrainian refugees have struggled with incompatible job qualifications and felt isolated by language barriers.

“I know that for many people it is a big problem because when you live in Ukraine you can have very nice degree, and you can have a very high job and a very big experience, but when you arrive in UK and you don’t speak English you are really nobody,” she says.

‘Missiles almost killed me twice – and I’m going back again’

Mother of two Natalie Baksheieva is full of gratitude for the welcome she has received in Winchester – but it won’t stop her returning to her homeland, even if her life is in danger.

“What struck me here is that people are genuinely, sincerely compassionate,” she says.

“I am touched. I feel it is so important for us to survive. This idea that we are not alone gives us strength.”

Missiles have almost killed Ms Baksheieva twice during her three trips back to Kyiv.

Russian bombs exploded a little over a mile away from her flat in October, striking the route she planned to take to the dentist.

Before that, her neighbouring block of apartments was partially destroyed by rockets hours after she left the city at the end of a separate visit last July.

She remains undeterred, with another trip to settle legal proceedings over the guardianship of a relative planned next month, but says she is “afraid” of the “roulette” she is playing.

“Honestly, I dread it,” she says, adding there have been four sirens a day in recent weeks.

Separated from her son

Multiple people died, cars were incinerated and a “huge crater” was left next to her dental practice in October’s attack. Ms Baksheieva, a sales coach, fears her son, 22, trapped in Ukraine by martial law, might be among Russia’s next victims.

“Living with this, it is painful. It is like an ongoing pain that you cannot just brush off because it is about your kids,” she says.

During her first visit back, nobody smiled and “you could feel the anxiety in the air”, but by 2023, acute stress had become “chronic” background anxiety.

Sirens were constant, but people were used to it. Missiles exploded, but often shot down by Kyiv’s air defence shield.

“At the beginning there would be empty streets. With time, people would ignore sirens and continue to play in the playgrounds with kids.”

Ms Baksheieva, who grew up in the Soviet Union, has harsh words for anyone calling for a compromise with Russia to end the war.

“Have you ever lived in an unfree country? Have you ever experienced that? Because [freedom] is like air, you don’t realise it until you don’t have it.”

She describes a lack of freedom as “something physical”, adding: “You don’t understand. It is like living suffocating.”

I didn’t vote for Zelenskyy

Ms Baksheieva credits Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the West’s backing – despite having not voted for him.

“I didn’t think he was a great president before but what he has done since the beginning of the war is extraordinary.

“I think it is diplomacy 2.0 that he created. Because he is not a diplomat. Because he jumped from stage to presidency, he lacks all those layers of we-are-very-concerned bulls***.”

Returning to Ukraine because he ‘can’t survive’ cost of living crisis

The cost of living crisis and separation from his wife and young son have convinced Agha Hassan Abbas to return to Ukraine.

He found he “can’t survive” here on the shifts he picks up as a barista and his wife, who is Pakistani, has had her visa denied.

Having spent the past year moving between the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and Canada before his arrival in the UK, Mr Abbas fought back tears as he described being left with nothing.

“I am not happy. Sometimes I am sitting and I am crying,” he says. “We are not living.”

He recalls his prosperity in Ukraine: “I had so many things there. I was the owner of my shops. I had my own home, I had my car, but now everything is zero in my life and I am going to start again. It is very disturbing for me. I am 42 years old.”

This is not the first time Russia has forced Mr Abbas to start over. He abandoned his first kebab shop in Luhansk for the western city of Vinnitsa in 2014 when Russian armed groups seized parts of the Donbas.

“I never thought it would happen again in my life. In my life I have seen two times war. Two times I have started my life and I lost everything,” he says.

Mr Abbas was in Pakistan visiting his wife’s family when Russia invaded Ukraine last year, and did not settle in one country until arriving here in January.

He had hoped he could sell his car, welcome his wife to the country and that they could make a living doing “any small job” anywhere affordable – but his hope is lost.

“I don’t know when, but I will go back [to Ukraine] because I don’t think I can survive alone here… I don’t know how I will manage it – it’s very expensive,” he says, adding that he is very thankful nonetheless to have been offered a visa in the UK.

Having renounced his Pakistani citizenship when he became a Ukrainian national in 2005 (Ukraine does not allow dual citizenship), Mr Abbas says he cannot join his wife in Pakistan either because he is not allowed to work in the country.

He recognises he is taking “a very big risk” returning to Ukraine, but says it is his home.

“I have everything in Ukraine. My whole life I spent everything, I risk everything, in Ukraine.”

Asked if he intends to help rebuild when the war is over, he says there is no doubt in his mind.

“The land who give me everything: My everything for this land,” he says.

“I will participate – not physically because of an issue – but I will participate financially, if I am there and I am earning.”

He vows: “I will start again.”

Marriage in the aftermath of a ‘massive’ Russian attack

Watching her cousin exchange vows in the aftermath of a “massive” attack on Mykolaiv was “surreal” for Veronika Prykhodko, 27, who has been living in London since last May.

As the authorities searched for bodies in buildings destroyed by Russian drones, she and her relatives at the wedding last month toasted the Ukrainian army for enabling them to hold it.

The night before, Ms Prykhodko and her mother, who were visiting Ukraine for three weeks, saw air defence systems spring into action for the first time, firing a “chain” of rockets at incoming drones, which exploded and rained down hunks of metal.

“It is basically a movie that you watch with your eyes from the window – which is wild,” Ms Prykhodko says.

It was a stark example of how her friends in Ukraine now live two very different lives, one during the day and one at night, when most Russian attacks occur.

While visiting Kyiv, Ms Prykhodko slept in a bathroom or an underground car park to escape missile strikes, before waking up to drink coffee with friends on another “beautiful day”.

“That’s the routine. That’s the new normal. Everyone is very philosophical about it. They’re like ‘if it hits me it hits me, I did everything I could’. They hide obviously and do everything to protect themselves, but there is no way they can 24/7 sit at home crying,” she says.

Ms Prykhodko is sanguine, likening positive experiences to putting on an oxygen mask during a plane emergency before helping anyone else.

“You cannot just live on patriotism. You really need to live your life – and then be able to help the army and help rebuild the country’s economy.”

Anger and guilt

That’s not to say the daytime in Kyiv was normal. Air-raid sirens were near-constant. At all times, Ms Prykhodko considered where she could hide if bombs began to fall.

She described an unabating tension driving her “crazy”, paranoia prompting her to hear sirens when there weren’t any. But one emotion overrode all others.

“I was angry the whole time,” she says. “The nation has never been so angry and so p***ed at somebody. I’m not just saying everyone hates Putin but you hate the whole country too.

“What I hate the most is I cannot feel safe in my own country.”

Returning to London at the end of last month came with its own emotional burden – the gnawing feeling of “survivors’ guilt”.

Ms Prykhodko says she feels “privileged” to be safe, to work and afford to rent, to be a woman who can leave the country while men like her father, aged between 18 and 60, remain under martial law.

“You unconsciously start blaming yourself for having such a good situation,” she says.

People in the UK have been “mega supportive”, she says, particularly of her mother, who speaks little English and has struggled to communicate while buying food or using the job centre.

But the Homes for Ukraine scheme visa ends in 2025, and the pair are in limbo over what happens next.

“The future is quite blurry but also que sera, sera, we’ll see what happens. I’m hoping the war will be over.”

‘My daughter speaks English now – but what happens when our visa runs out?’

A dentist who fled to the UK with her six-year-old daughter has described the heartbreak of seeing her child “lose everything”.

Both have been forced to start their lives again, with Kristina Nepushenkov, 47, finding her qualifications aren’t recognised in the UK and Agatha restarting her education at reception level without any friends.

After a year and a half in England, Agatha is unable to read or write in Ukrainian, so Ms Nepushenkov wants to continue her education in the UK – but the visa system has left them in limbo.

“I want to make my daughter happy. She lost everything,” says Ms Nepushenkov, who lives in Maidenhead.

“She always asks ‘where are my grandparents, where is my dog, where is my father, where are my friends?’ And what I can do?”

Some of Ms Nepushenkov’s friends stayed in Ukraine: “It’s not that they don’t care for their lives – they choose to stay because it’s very scary to lose everything.”

Ms Nepushenkov, now training in dentistry for the second time, says she knows numerous Ukrainian medical professionals, including doctors, whose qualifications could not secure them jobs in the UK.

They have found themselves earning less money and facing a higher cost of living, while struggling to find places to rent. Ms Nepushenkov and her daughter live in a one-bedroom flat.

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“It is a strange feeling,” she says.

“It is like your life has completely changed. But I try to find better in this situation – because maybe for my daughter it is better to live here.”

Developing her language skills has made Agatha happier in the UK than when she first arrived, Ms Nepushenkov says.

“She started to speak with officials, with waiters in the restaurant, and she is so happy that they understood her.”

She laughs. “Sometimes I cannot understand her. English people understand her very well, but I can’t.”

Yet it could “all be for nothing”, she says, if their visas aren’t extended at the end of next year.

The pair remain in limbo over what status they will have in the UK in 2025 – while also uncertain if they will have a home to go back to in Ukraine by then.

World

Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza

Published

1 hour ago

July 7, 2025

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Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza

An Israeli reservist who served three tours of duty in Gaza has told Sky News in a rare on-camera interview that his unit was often ordered to shoot anyone entering areas soldiers defined as no-go zones, regardless of whether they posed a threat, a practice he says left civilians dead where they fell.

“We have a territory that we are in, and the commands are: everyone that comes inside needs to die,” he said. “If they’re inside, they’re dangerous you need to kill them. No matter who it is,” he said.

Speaking anonymously, the soldier said troops killed civilians arbitrarily. He described the rules of engagement as unclear, with orders to open fire shifting constantly depending on the commander.

The soldier is a reservist in the Israel Defence Force’s 252nd Division. He was posted twice to the Netzarim corridor; a narrow strip of land cut through central Gaza early in the war, running from the sea to the Israeli border. It was designed to split the territory and allow Israeli forces to have greater control from inside the Strip.

He said that when his unit was stationed on the edge of a civilian area, soldiers slept in a house belonging to displaced Palestinians and marked an invisible boundary around it that defined a no-go zone for Gazans.

“In one of the houses that we had been in, we had the big territory. This was the closest to the citizens’ neighbourhood, with people inside. And there’s an imaginary line that they tell us all the Gazan people know it, and that they know they are not allowed to pass it,” he said. “But how can they know?”

People who crossed into this area were most often shot, he said.

“It was like pretty much everyone that comes into the territory, and it might be like a teenager riding his bicycle,” he said.

The soldier described a prevailing belief among troops that all Gazans were terrorists, even when they were clearly unarmed civilians. This perception, he said, was not challenged and was often endorsed by commanders.

“They don’t really talk to you about civilians that may come to your place. Like I was in the Netzarim road, and they say if someone comes here, it means that he knows he shouldn’t be there, and if he still comes, it means he’s a terrorist,” he said.

“This is what they tell you. But I don’t really think it’s true. It’s just poor people, civilians that don’t really have too many choices.”

He said the rules of engagement shifted constantly, leaving civilians at the mercy of commanders’ discretion.

“They might be shot, they might be captured,” he said. “It really depends on the day, the mood of the commander.”

He recalled an occasion of a man crossing the boundary and being shot. When another man came later to the body, he too was shot.

Later the soldiers decided to capture people who approached the body. Hours after that, the order changed again, shoot everyone on sight who crosses the “imaginary line”.

At another time, his unit was positioned near the Shujaiya area of Gaza City. He described Palestinians scavenging scrap metal and solar panels from a building inside the so-called no-go zone.

“For sure, no terrorists there,” he said. “Every commander can choose for himself what he does. So it’s kind of like the Wild West. So, some commanders can really decide to do war crimes and bad things and don’t face the consequences of that.”

The soldier said many of his comrades believed there were no innocents in Gaza, citing the Hamas-led 7 October attack that killed around 1,200 people and saw 250 taken hostage. Dozens of hostages have since been freed or rescued by Israeli forces, while about 50 remain in captivity, including roughly 30 Israel believes are dead.

He recalled soldiers openly discussing the killings.

“They’d say: ‘Yeah, but these people didn’t do anything to prevent October 7, and they probably had fun when this was happening to us. So they deserve to die’.”

He added: “People don’t feel mercy for them.”

“I think a lot of them really felt like they were doing something good,” he said. “I think the core of it, that in their mind, these people aren’t innocent.”

In Israel, it is rare for soldiers to publicly criticise the IDF, which is seen as a unifying institution and a rite of passage for Jewish Israelis. Military service shapes identity and social standing, and those who speak out risk being ostracised.

The soldier said he did not want to be identified because he feared being branded a traitor or shunned by his community.

Still, he felt compelled to speak out.

“I kind of feel like I took part in something bad, and I need to counter it with something good that I do, by speaking out, because I am very troubled about what I took and still am taking part of, as a soldier and citizen in this country,” he said

“I think the war is… a very bad thing that is happening to us, and to the Palestinians, and I think it needs to be over,” he said.

He added: “I think in Israeli community, it’s very hard to criticise itself and its army. A lot of people don’t understand what they are agreeing to. They think the war needs to happen, and we need to bring the hostages back, but they don’t understand the consequences.

“I think a lot of people, if they knew exactly what’s happening, it wouldn’t go down very well for them, and they wouldn’t agree with it. I hope that by speaking of it, it can change how things are being done.”

We put the allegations of arbitrary killings in the Netzarim corridor to the Israeli military.

In a statement, the IDF said it “operates in strict accordance with its rules of engagement and international law, taking feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm”.

“The IDF operates against military targets and objectives, and does not target civilians or civilian objects,” the statement continued.

The Israeli military added that “reports and complaints regarding the violation of international law by the IDF are transferred to the relevant authorities responsible for examining exceptional incidents that occurred during the war”.

On the specific allegations raised by the soldier interviewed, the IDF said it could not address them directly because “the necessary details were not provided to address the case mentioned in the query. Should additional information be received, it will be thoroughly examined.”

The statement also mentioned the steps the military says it takes to minimise civilian casualties, including issuing evacuation warnings and advising people to temporarily leave areas of intense fighting.

“The areas designated for evacuation in the Gaza Strip are updated as needed. The IDF continuously informs the civilian population of any changes,” it said.

World

Australian mother guilty of murdering three people with poisonous mushrooms

Published

3 hours ago

July 7, 2025

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Australian mother guilty of murdering three people with poisonous mushrooms

An Australian mother has been found guilty of murdering her estranged husband’s parents and an aunt by serving them a beef wellington laced with poisonous mushrooms.

Erin Patterson, 50, invited her former parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail Patterson’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, to the fatal lunch on 29 July 2023.

The mother-of-two, from the state of Victoria in southern Australia, has also been convicted of the attempted murder of Mrs Wilkinson’s husband Reverend Ian Wilkinson.

All four fell ill after eating a meal of beef wellington, mashed potatoes and green beans at Patterson’s home in the town of Leongatha, the court was told.

Prosecutors said Patterson knowingly laced the beef pastry dish with deadly death cap mushrooms, also known as Amanita phalloides, at her home.

The guests ate their meals off four large grey dinner plates, while Patterson ate from a smaller, tan-coloured plate, the court heard.

Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs Patterson died on Friday 4 August 2023, while Mr Patterson died a day later.

Reverend Wilkinson spent seven weeks in hospital but survived.

Her estranged husband Simon Patterson, with whom she has two children, was also invited to the lunch and initially accepted but later declined, the trial heard.

The jury was told that prosecutors had dropped three charges that Patterson had attempted to murder her husband, who she has been separated from since 2015.

Reverend Wilkinson said that immediately after the meal, Patterson fabricated a cancer diagnosis, suggesting the lunch was put together so that she could ask them the best way to tell her children about the illness.

The prosecution said she did this to justify the children’s absence.

The defence did not dispute that Patterson lied about having cancer.

The trial attracted intense interest in Australia – with podcasters, journalists and documentary-makers descending on the town of Morwell, around two hours east of Melbourne, where the court hearings took place.

A sentencing date is yet to be scheduled.

What makes death cap mushrooms so lethal?

The death cap is one of the most toxic mushrooms on the planet and is involved in the majority of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide.

The species contains three main groups of toxins: amatoxins, phallotoxins, and virotoxins.

From these, amatoxins are primarily responsible for the toxic effects in humans.

The alpha-amanitin amatoxin has been found to cause protein deficit and ultimately cell death, although other mechanisms are thought to be involved.

The liver is the main organ that fails due to the poison, but other organs are also affected, most notably the kidneys.

The effects usually begin after a short latent period and can include gastrointestinal disorders followed by jaundice, seizures, coma, and eventually, death.

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World

Israel attacks Houthi targets at three ports and power plant in Yemen

Published

7 hours ago

July 7, 2025

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Israel attacks Houthi targets at three ports and power plant in Yemen

Israel says its military has attacked Houthi targets at three ports and a power plant in Yemen.

Defence minister Israel Katz confirmed the strikes, saying they were carried out due to repeated attacks by the Iranian-backed rebel group on Israel.

Mr Katz said the Israeli military attacked the Galaxy Leader ship which he claimed was hijacked by the Houthis and was being used for “terrorist activities in the Red Sea”.

It came after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued an evacuation warning for people at Hodeidah, Ras Issa, and Salif ports – as well as the Ras al Khatib power station, which it said is controlled by Houthi rebels.

The IDF said it would carry out airstrikes on those areas due to “military activities being carried out there”.

Afterwards, Mr Katz confirmed the strikes at the ports and power plant.

Earlier in the day, a ship was reportedly set on fire after being attacked in the Red Sea.

A private security company said the assault, off the southwest coast of Yemen, resembled that of the Houthi militant group.

It was the first such incident reported in the vital shipping corridor since mid-April.

The vessel, identified as the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier Magic Seas, had taken on water after being hit by sea drones, maritime security sources said. The crew later abandoned the ship.

The Houthi rebels have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership called an effort to end Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

Between November 2023 and January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors.

The Houthis paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the US launched an assault against the rebels in mid-March.

That ended weeks later and the Houthis have not attacked a vessel, though they have continued occasional missile attacks targeting Israel.

A renewed Houthi campaign against shipping could again draw in US and Western forces to the area.

The ship attack comes at a sensitive moment in the Middle East.

A possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war hangs in the balance and Iran is weighing up whether to restart negotiations over its nuclear programme.

It follows American airstrikes last month, which targeted its most-sensitive atomic sites amid an Israeli war against the Islamic Republic that ended after 12 days.

How did the Houthis come to control much of Yemen?

A civil war erupted in Yemen in late 2014 when the Houthis seized Sanaa.

Worried by the growing influence of Shia Iran along its border, Saudi Arabia led a Western-backed coalition in March 2015, which intervened in support of the Saudi-backed government.

The Houthis established control over much of the north and other large population centres, while the internationally recognised government based itself in the port city of Aden.