Ukrainian woman who fled to UK now wants to help other refugees

Alla Karimova is staying at the Double Tree by Hilton Estree in Hertfordshire
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Elly Blake25 March 2022

A Ukrainian woman who fled to the UK and is staying in a hotel now wants to help other refugees.

Alla Karimova, 27, from Kyiv, is one of 11 Ukrainians being offered free accommodation at a hotel owned by Lethendy Estates Limited.

She fled Ukraine via Moldova and is now staying at the Double Tree by Hilton Elstree in Hertfordshire.

Miss Karimova said she is “so grateful” to be offered a place to stay and is using her time to help the other woman who cannot speak English, by teaching them the language to help them settle into the UK.

She even attends hospital and doctors appointments, acting as a translator for those who require support.

She said: “I want to teach them English and help them. These girls helped me a lot because when I came to the hotel I felt so bad. For me, life was over.

“I didn’t know what I needed to do, but they supported me a lot and I want to do something for them.

“If I had an opportunity, I would like to do something more. I’m really lucky I’m in the UK and living a hotel, so I want to do something nice for other people.”

When Miss Karimova heard Russian troops had crossed over the border into Ukraine, she decided to pack her bags and leave her home in the capital, Kyiv.

Miss Karimova, who had been working at an IT company and as a Russian language teacher before the conflict, made the 200-mile journey to Poltava, a city in central Ukraine.

She had hoped getting away from Kyiv would make her feel safer. But those feelings quickly dissipated when she arrived, seeing “everyone in panic” with people fleeing on foot to get away from the city.

Panic buying and food shortages were rife, far worse than what she had seen during the height of the pandemic. She looked for a place to get money out, to no avail, before deciding what to do next.

Miss Karimova said: “When I ran from Kyiv to Poltava, I thought I would feel okay and safe, but I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat. I was crying all day and all night.

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“I felt so tired, it was the worst time in my life.

“My family didn’t want to run and they didn’t want me to run. My grandfather, he is 90 years old, and he said, ‘why do you have to go abroad’?

“I said, ‘it’s because of the war. Russia destroyed Kyiv, Mariupol and Sumy’. He was crying and said, ‘it can’t be true’.”

With a school friend, Miss Karimova looked for ways to leave Ukraine but could find no public transport to take them, so deciding to drive she looked for safe routes to leave the country. Driving to Poland, they decided, was out of the question because it was too far.

Instead they drove to the Ukrainian-Moldovan border, stopping only to sleep in a village where they sought refuge from a family. From there they journeyed to Romania, where her and her friend went separate ways: her friend, a graphic designer, found work in Bulgaria.

Miss Karimova was put in touch with Sterling Law, who are supporting Lethendy Estates Limited to provide accommodation, food and essential items to refugees fleeing Ukraine free of charge in the UK.

She has now been in the UK for a couple of weeks and is waiting for her visa to be processed.

Other hotels participating in the programme are the Double Tree by Hilton Stoke on Trent, Double Tree by Hilton Cheltenham and Holiday Inn Bolton.

Dr Boris Mints, the settlor of the MF Trust, which owns Lethendy Estates Limited, said he was “shocked and sickened by the scenes of desperate families fleeing Ukraine following Putin’s invasion”.

He said the group wanted to “support and help the Ukrainian people”.

“We are grateful to the hotel staff who are helping to ensure that all those who will call the hotels home for the next few months are well looked after,” he added.

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