A family forced to flee war in Ukraine has shared their thoughts about spending Christmas in a Dundee hotel, thousands of miles from their family.
Sergii and Liudmyla Kulish have spent the last five months living at the city’s Apex hotel alongside their three children – 18-year-old Mykyta, 15-year-old Karyna and 9-year-old Kyryl.
The family first fled their Kyiv home in April following the Russian invasion, heading Poland where they stayed until June.
‘It wasn’t safe in Kyiv’
After that, they returned to Kyiv for three weeks to gather their belongings and say their goodbyes before making the six-day drive to Scotland.
Sergii, 41, said: “It wasn’t safe in Kyiv, there are a lot of problems with electricity.
“The main reason we left is because the kids needed to study.
“It is terrible in Ukraine, very terrible.
“Right now I can’t get a job so I can’t get money.
“If you don’t have money you don’t eat.”
The family are now spending their first holiday season away from their home and relatives.
Family hoping to return to Ukraine one day
While they are comfortable at the hotel, the separation from friends and family has made the festive season hard.
Liudmyla, 43, said: “We all miss our relatives, we all miss our friends, but it’s impossible to go to Ukraine just now – it’s too dangerous.
“Usually in Ukraine, most of our celebration is at New Year instead of Christmas.
“Still, on Christmas we see our parents and grandparents – it’s a big time for family.
“On January 7 or January 8, we visit each other and drop off presents and gifts.
“We’re missing that just now, especially the young children.
“We hope the war will end by next Christmas and everything will be good, but I think the infrastructure in Ukraine will be quite bad for the next three or four years.
“Everything will be hard.”
‘Around us are very nice people who say merry Christmas’
Despite missing home, the Kulish family say they’ve been made to feel very welcome in Scotland.
Sergii, who worked as an engineer in Ukraine, said: “Around us are very nice people who say merry Christmas.
“We study at the college and and we had a Christmas party with some of the people there.
“Many people have given us presents and also people have been speaking slowly and clearly which is very important.
“I think we’re going to have another party at New Year.”
Conversation