‘Many people still need support’: how a Ukrainian refugee helps others fleeing the conflict

Like millions of other Ukrainians, Veronika Riepina had to leave her country behind. Now, having found refuge in the UK, she is working with the British Red Cross to assist new arrivals – and looking forward to the day she can return home

Two years ago, Veronika Riepina was a typical 23-year-old. She was renting an apartment in Kyiv, working hard to make her way in the film industry, and making plans to apply for funding to shoot her own documentary project. She was thrilled to work on Do You Love Me?, a coming-of-age film directed by Tonia Noyabrova. She couldn’t have imagined they would wrap up just days before the conflict escalated, nor that she’d be living in the UK when the film debuted at the Berlin film festival. “I feel a sense of joy that we managed to finish shooting and that despite all of the difficulties with post-production, the film still came out,” says Riepina. “It seems like a lifetime ago.”

The decision to leave Ukraine wasn’t an easy one. She had been visiting her parents in Zaporizhzhia in the south-east of the country for a short holiday. “I was only planning to stay for a couple of days. I had a small backpack, my laptop and two T-shirts with me,” she says. But after five days of explosions, her father decided she and her mother had to leave. They drove for a week to get to the border with Poland. From there, Riepina and her mother took the train to Berlin where they applied at the UK visa office to stay with a relative who lived in Blackpool. They arrived in the UK in March 2022. “I know from speaking to people who came after us, that we were relatively lucky,” says Riepina. “Although it was dangerous leaving Ukraine, we didn’t have to stay in any refugee camps and we managed to get here relatively cheaply and quickly.”

On the ground in Ukraine, teams from the Hungarian and Polish Red Cross provide emergency assistance to civilians in the conflict zone Continue reading...