'Horsham is lovely,' says Ukrainian refugee 'but I want to go home'

But Julia Bondar, 30, who fled Ukraine with her mother soon after the invasion, says she still wants to go home.

Julia, a photographer, said: “It’s very good here in Horsham, it’s amazing and a beautiful place, with lovely people, but we just want to go back to Ukraine, really,”

After fleeing their home village of Monastyryshche, 120 miles from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the pair spent eight weeks living in Poland, Greece and Hungary before their Horsham sponsor’s application to accommodate them was approved.

She had plans in Ukraine to set up a photography studio in Kyiv.

She said they didn’t want to believe the war was still happening. “We want to go back to Ukraine and I want to think this is just a bad nightmare and I’ll wake up tomorrow and it will be OK.”

Julia talks of her experience in a ‘Sounding Out Horsham’ podcast with founders Anna Hjalmarsson and Emma Eversham.

Anna said: “War is horrific no matter where it happens in the world. But the war in Ukraine is in the heart of Europe – our home.

"We all watch in disbelief what is happening, and there is a massive engagement in our local community to help the people fleeing their homes.”

Julia’s experience on Sounding Out Horsham can be heard on Podbean: https://soundingouthorsham.podbean.com or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon

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