A Ukrainian artist who fled to safety in the Bradford district has described feeling "helpless" after watching a fresh barrage of Russian air strikes hit her hometown.

Victoria Chichinadze, 42, left her home in Kyiv with her teenage daughters under the Homes for Ukraine scheme in August.

Victoria settled in Burley-in-Wharfedale, reluctantly leaving her elderly mother in the Ukrainian capital.

Ms Chichinadze and her daughters, Vladislava, 13, and Nika, 15, now live with the Cade family.

Janet and Mark Cade and their son, Robin, welcomed the family and helped them find comfort in their new chapter. 

Ms Chichinadze, a sculptor who specialises in casting bronze, said she stays awake most nights to keep track of social media and news reports of air strikes in Kyiv.

If she reads anything, she alerts her 80-year-old mother who lives alone and has trouble hearing the air raid warnings.

Large areas of the capital were cut off from power and water supplies after Russian strikes on Monday hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities.

It was part of an apparent retaliation for what Moscow alleged was a Ukrainian attack on its Black Sea Fleet over the weekend.

Ms Chichinadze told the PA news agency: “I’m very nervous and I can’t live normally because my thoughts and my soul is with my home in Ukraine.

“Just imagine all the people who you know and love, the beautiful buildings, your home, all ruined, but all you can do is just look and do nothing… that’s how I am feeling right now.

“It was horrible when I was inside, but when you’re on the outside it’s the most terrible feeling you can imagine because you feel helpless.”

Last month Ms Chichinadze’s partner, Uri, who has remained in Ukraine, was “knocked to the floor” by a nearby blast whilst walking to a doctor’s appointment.

Ms Chichinadze said it has been “exhausting” keeping track of the recent air strikes over Kyiv and she is concerned for her mother’s safety.

“She’s in a very dangerous situation but she doesn’t want to leave her home,” she said.

“I offered to make her a British visa but she doesn’t want to come, so I had to make her one without her knowing in case of an emergency so I can go and rescue her.

“I’m so nervous that she won’t hear the sirens so I contact her and make sure she goes to the cellar for safety.

“It’s exhausting for both of us.”

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: A bronze sculpture by Victoria ChichinadzeA bronze sculpture by Victoria Chichinadze (Image: PA)

Mrs Cade said the Ukrainian family have “settled in well” but adjusting to life in the UK after having experienced war has not been easy.

“We live quite close to Leeds Bradford Airport and when planes started flying over, especially during the first couple of days, there was a bit of flinching because the sounds brought it all back,” she said.

Mrs Cade said the local school has been “great” at welcoming the family by offering support, providing uniforms and free school meals, and fundraising for Ukraine.

She admitted it has been a challenge for the girls to start at an English school and they are “essentially having to work twice as hard as the other children”.

“The difficulty is – and I think this is true for many Ukrainian children – the girls were already partway through a system of schooling in Ukraine when they left,” she said.

“They’re now trying to balance UK schooling and Ukrainian schooling, which is hard.”

The ongoing tension between Ukraine and Russia has also led to a divide within Ms Chichinadze’s own family.

She no longer has any form of relationship with her brother, who is Ukrainian but lives in Moscow.

She said her mother has also now cut ties with him over his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“He thinks Russia has no part in (the war), which obviously is not true,” Ms Chichinadze said.

“He believes Putin when he calls it a ‘special military operation’ and not a war and he thinks Ukraine is bombing itself.

“It’s really a tragedy because I think he is a nice man and he’s very clever, yet he doesn’t believe his own mother, who is in danger.

“I can’t say that he is a stupid person but I don’t know how someone can believe the TV over his own mother and sister.”

Prior to the war, Ms Chichinadze would travel to Russia for work and even had her artworks displayed in a Russian-themed exhibition at the 2016 Chelsea Flower Show in London.

She said it has been “painful” to have to cut all links with the country and rebuild her career in the UK, but added: “After all this, I refuse to work there ever again.”

With the help of her host family, Ms Chichinadze has set up an English version of her website and hopes to continue producing her artwork from the UK.

Mrs Cade said: “Victoria is quite unique because she is a female sculptor specialising in bronze and she has built her own foundry down the road from her house in Ukraine.

“Her work is so beautiful and if she can begin producing it again in the UK then that makes life so much easier for her.”

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