Ukrainians living in Britain fear Vladimir Putin’s war on their country “will never end” after watching the summit between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky unfold at the White House earlier this week.
Monika Popadiuk, who moved to the UK from Kyiv in July 2022, said she was “afraid of losing everything a second time” if the devastating conflict is not brought to an end. The 28-year-old left her dream job as a lawyer in Ukraine’s parliament and moved to rural Somerset under the British government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Like many displaced Ukrainians, Ms Popadiuk desperately wants to go back to her old life in Kyiv. But she does not feel that will be possible in the near future, despite the meeting on Monday being hailed as “real progress” by prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.
“The ‘peace’ people talk about does not feel like peace to me,” she told The Independent. “It feels like just a pause. Unless Ukraine is given real security guarantees, the war will resume.”
She is concerned that any peace talks between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders would only “freeze” the war.
“It does not seem that the Kremlin truly wants to end this war,” she continued. “Even if the war is frozen now, it will start again in a few months or years, when Russia is stronger than today.”
When it comes to Ukraine conceding territory, Ms Popadiuk thinks this will only serve to embolden Russia: “This looks very much like appeasement. History shows us that appeasement never stops aggressors. It only encourages them to continue.”
Three years on from the start of the Russian invasion, there are some young Ukrainians who have never even seen their own country.
Liza Perebyynis’s son was born in 2022, after Russia launched its full-scale assault on Ukraine, and he is now considered a “child of war”.
“He doesn’t know the war, but he would have this status,” the 34-year-old said.
The boy is now three years old, and while he understands Ukrainian, he does not speak it. It pains his mother that she cannot show him her country while the war continues to rage.
Ms Perebyynis is from the Donbas region and left Ukraine in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea. She went to China at first, and later to Germany, where she has opened her own yoga studio. Monday’s meeting, which also saw key European leaders hosted in Washington DC, was not a “breakthrough” in her view – it was merely history repeating itself.
She told The Independent: “We’ve been there already. This conflict has not been happening since 2014 or 2022. It’s been here for centuries. The territory has been back and forth.
“We’ve been betrayed. Giving up territories now would mean the war will start again in three years or in five years.”
Ms Perebyynis was disappointed by the coverage of Mr Zelensky’s White House meeting, especially the “absurd” focus on the Ukrainian president wearing a suit.
“All of this feels more like a show with a red carpet and shaking hands,” she said. “Zelensky wearing a suit was not the most important part.
“I was hoping for real politics, but I don’t think any real decisions were made.”
Tetiana Shcherban, 37, a Ukrainian entrepreneur in London, still goes back to Kyiv whenever she can to see her family.
“When you love something, it doesn’t matter if it’s dangerous or not,” she said. “I just need time to be there and feel that Ukrainian energy.”
She came to the UK under the Ukraine family visa scheme and now splits her time between London and Kyiv. Before the war, Tetiana said she had “almost the ideal life”, then she had to “start from scratch” when Russia invaded.
While Ms Shcherban has a strong desire to return home more permanently, she said: “I don’t think this is the end. It may be an end to this chapter of the war, but not the end of Russia’s plans.
“The feeling of danger for Baltic countries will not finish right now. Russian propaganda still prevails. The ideas on which they built their army and this war movement will never stop existing.”
