Zhanna Mokeieva arrived in Coventry on Sunday 27 March, more than two years ago.
It wasn’t planned.
She had been living in Kiev in the Ukraine.
She explains: “When the war began and the Russian invasion started in February 2022, suddenly everything changed. We expected that the shelling and bombing would be targeted at Kiev imminently. Everyone expected disaster.
“I ran from Kiev to the countryside where my son had some friends, but it was difficult with intermittent electricity and internet access and no lights permitted after dark.”
“After a few days I decided to leave Ukraine. I wanted to return to Kiev to collect my belongings, but my son said no it was too dangerous. It was my friends in Germany and the UK who urged me to go there for safety - immediately.
Zhanna got a lift to a bigger settlement, there were many checkpoints which made the journey slow.
“I then got a bus to a bigger town and from there a small train to a bigger mainline station.
“Many trains came and went from there, they were all full but eventually, at Midnight I managed to get the last ticket on a train to Lviv in the West of Ukraine.
Zhanna said that the train was very crowded and the whole journey – lasting 13 hours - was in total darkness to protect them from attack.
She said: “From Lviv it was a bus over the Carpathian Mountains to Budapest and from there another train to Munich in Germany.”
Zhanna then travelled on to Hamburg where she remained for three weeks while she waited for her UK visa.
It was a very strange time, in a foreign country just waiting and thinking of home.
“After I got the Visa, I said goodbye to my friends and travelled from Hamburg to Brussels, again by train.”
Eurostar brought Zhanna to London where friends helped to get her on the correct train to Coventry and she finally arrived in Coventry to live with her sponsor on the 27th March 2022 – 31 days after the start of the war in Ukraine.
“I’m very grateful to everyone who brought me to safety.
“I’m working in childcare now and English is improving. In the future I’d realy like to be a teaching assistant or even a teacher, maybe.
Her advice for Ukrainians arriving today would be ‘to accept their life and appreciate it’.
She said: “The acceptance bit hard is to get too. It’s different here from Ukraine, but having lived here for two years it’s no longer difficult. I have my friends and local people who have made me so welcome to thank for that’.