From: CNN By Lauren Kent and Maria Kostenko
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
London and Kyiv, Ukraine CNN — She arrived in London with just one suitcase, full of mostly children’s clothes, and her young daughter in tow. Her home engulfed by war, Ukrainian mother Yana Felos found herself in the United Kingdom in April 2022 with no friends, no family and no community.
“I just started a new life from scratch,” recalled Felos, 34, who fled Russia’s full-scale invasion to come live with a host family – strangers at the time – who offered to take in Ukrainian refugees.
After close to three years of war, the situation has flipped. Felos says she has nothing to return to in Ukraine.
Originally from a Russian-speaking area of eastern Ukraine, the war broke up what little community she had left. Her grandmother had temporarily moved to Belarus before the war, then stayed when the invasion happened. Her parents passed away years ago. And some friends from home have gone down a concerning pro-Russian political path, she told CNN in an interview in London.
Voice of Ukraine 