Ukraine family helped by SAS staff member

After the war broke out in Ukraine, Ricky Laird, former Community Resilience Team Leader (North), now retired and his wife Mary, arranged for a family from Dnipro to stay with them. Earlier this year, the family of six moved out into their own place in Dundee and they have stayed friends since.

Varvara Mishyna, mum of two boys, was a TV reporter, director and videographer at TV station in Dnipro while Serhii, dad of two girls was professor at Alfred Nobel university in Dnipro, lectured in global economics. In Dundee he is now carrying out a research project with council.

Ricky said: “We've been really, really fortunate because we got a fantastic family. We got in touch with them and we had a couple of meetings online with the family and we have had the family of six staying with us since mid-july.

“They moved out into their own place in February and seemed to be settling very well into the Scottish way of life.

“I think our experience of hosting our Ukrainian family has actually given us more than it's given them. We've got more out of it than they have.”

You can watch their story here, including Oleksander Ihnatenko, aged 10, and Serhii Kuzminov, dad of two girls, Dasha and Anastasia, speaking about their life in Scotland.