Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been welcomed to Britain – but nowhere more so than in the leafy town of Crowborough, East Sussex. How are the new arrivals settling in?
n the wall of platform one at Crowborough station is a series of posters encouraging visitors to the East Sussex town. They’re meant to look like vintage railway posters, with steam trains chuffing through chocolate-box countryside. “Visit Crowborough, gateway to Ashdown Forest” reads one. “Come to Crowborough, to Ramble” and “Come to Crowborough, for the Finest Country Outdoor Pursuits”. They might want to commission a new poster, something like “Come to Crowborough, to escape Putin’s bombs”.
Inna and Vadym are here with their children, Sofiia, 13, and Danyil, five. Most men aged from 18 to 60in anticipation that they may be called to fight, but Vadym was allowed to because Sofiia has a disability. There was a nervy moment at the border coming out though, when they thought he wasn’t going to be let through. Their story is one shared by millions in Europe’s latest mass migration.
Steve and Jenny’s 11-year-old daughter Winnie had made a welcome sign in the colours of the Ukrainian flag. The church is a few metres away, the school at the end of the road. There are no sirens or bombs, and the windows don’t shake – though it can get a bit draughty in winter, warns Jenny. “I tell everybody,” Inna says, “here we are like in a paradise among angels. Wonderful place, wonderful people.
Nastia, originally from Bakhmut in the Donetsk region in the east, has watched as her home town is pulverised. It hasn’t fallen at the time of writing, but she fears it’s only a matter of time. Both of them – all of them – are constantly glued to the news, of course; they get it mostly from the government of Ukraine’s official Telegram channel, and from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s Instagram posts.
Olha and Nastia are staying with Reem and Andy Acason, who are not churchgoers but are here today. “We’re in that position where our kids have grown up, we’ve got the space,” says Andy, who deals in antiques. He thinks that Crowborough’s demographic has made it so open to Ukrainians: “You’ve got a lot of middle-class people, quite big houses, their own kids have grown up, plus they’re relatively news-savvy, up on world affairs.
Anyway, Reem and Andy signed up to Homes for Ukraine, Olha and Nastia found them, they had a video call, got on. “And they had two dogs,” Olha says. Dogs, I’m learning, are important.“They’re only saying that because we’re sitting here,” Reem says. Andy offers to leave, so they can say what they really think.“Yes, lords, please contact us. Lords or higher.” Olha adds, to clarify. “No, being realistic, we would like to have jobs here.
Ira is a secondary school teacher in Kyiv; she teaches English, and still does – 17 classes a week on Zoom. Some of her students are still in Ukraine, others scattered across Europe. She doesn’t even know where some are. “It’s hard for them; they show their feelings and emotions. I think they’re doing the best they can.” She would like to find work here, too, but will carry on her Zoom classes. She’s promised her headteacher, and knows her students need her.
I also speak to Wealden councillor Toby Illingworth, not in person but on the phone because he’s in … Lviv. He’s working with a charity called Make a Difference, which provides support to refugees wanting to come to the UK . The charity is particularly concerned with safeguarding, and some of the people matching themselves up not being rigorous enough.
Cathy gives us a worksheet about the present simple and the present continuous tenses, which we sort of use, but mainly as a starting place to talk about ourselves: Olha and Olena live in Kharkiv; right now they are living in Crowborough. They, too, were friends before the war. Olha got here first, asked her sponsor Sharon if she knew anyone who might take in her friend Olena; Sharon’s mum agreed to. It’s good to have a friend within walking distance, they both agree.
Arsenii Repyzhynska and his mother Oksana with their hosts Estella and Jonathan Lovett and their labradoodle Arsenii, who’s 13, started at Beacon Academy yesterday, but wasn’t well today, so didn’t go in. They have very little English, so communicate with Jonathan and Estella using a voice-translation app called SayHi. Oksana demonstrates. She says something in Ukrainian into her phone. There’s a pause, then the phone says with a hint of antipodean about the accent: “I am very grateful to Jonathan and Estella Lovett to care about us as our own children, very kind people and kind home.
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