'Are we in paradise?' Ukrainian refugees on their new home in the New Forest

STANDING in a traditional English country garden in Milford, no one has to tell Ukrainian refugee Natalie Korolevych how lucky she is.

She said: “When we arrived here, my husband Alex was in shock. He was like, ‘Are we in paradise?’ He could not believe we were somewhere so beautiful.”

Having fled wartorn Ukraine two months ago, for Natalie the most important thing about being in the New Forest is “feeling so happy that my children are in a very safe place”.

She told the A&T: “They have already made friends and I am not frightened about them going off to the sea or the Forest to play. They love all the nature around us.

“At home slowly, slowly I could see them changing. Becoming scared, becoming insular. But since we arrived here, in a very quick time they were back to being children again and that makes my heart glad.”

Her family’s journey to Milford was made possible by the charity New Forest Homes for Ukraine (NFHU) which has so far rehomed more than 70 refugees in the UK.

Like many of them, Natalie’s experience of fleeing her beloved country was traumatic. She was separated from her three children, aged seven, 11 and 16, and their father when the Russians invaded in February this year.

She said: “We live near Dnipro but Alex had taken our children to see his mother not far from there while I had gone to see my mother in a little village near Kyiv.

“There had been talk about war for months but no one believed it would ever happen.

“Every Ukrainian family has close relatives in Russia, and the same is true of Russian people. The idea we would be at war was unthinkable.”

When the invasion began, Natalie (43) said she was in total shock.

“It was so terrifying to see bombs and shelling on the TV, to see troops in the streets.

“For the first two weeks I never changed my clothes, even in bed, and I had my shoes on the floor next to it ready to run if a bomb landed nearby.

“I did not even take a shower for weeks. Alex and the children were the same. We were just living on our nerves, never knowing what was going to happen.”

The journey back home should have been easy for Natalie but the main road between the two areas was completely jammed by fleeing people.

There were no trains so she had to wait for nearly a month before her husband could arrange two lifts via friends travelling a route which took her around the main danger areas so the family could finally be reunited.

In the meantime, the fighting got nearer and nearer. Natalie told how one day she looked up at the sky above her mother’s house and saw a Russian plane being brought down by a rocket.

She said: “First I saw the plane, then the rocket chasing it, then a huge bang and explosion. It was so surreal, like a Tom Cruise movie – only this wasn’t Tom Cruise, this was real life!

“We would hear terrible sounds – when a gas station near my mother’s home was blown up the windows rattled. It was just terrifying, and all the time I feared for my children.”

Alex added: “Everyone had to download this app on their mobile phone which would send a warning when shelling was near. Sometimes it gives off a really loud air-raid siren noise. Sometimes it could be three, 10 or 20 times a day.

“At first everyone was scared but as the months went by people tried to start living as normally as we could.”

Eventually Natalie made it home to Dnipro where for two months her whole family, including the children, helped the Ukrainian resistance by cooking for them at a feeding station.

Natalie said: “I did not want to leave my country but I saw my children becoming hardened to war. And slowly I saw them changing from the children I knew. For their sake we had to get out of Ukraine. I wanted them to have a future.”

A Ukrainian friend living in England put her in touch with NFHU. She said: “I had about 20 profiles of hosts sent to me but when I saw Alison and Larry Benjamin from Milford at the top, I knew they were the right ones.

“They have been fantastic and so has the charity. The charity helped us get our visas and they have supported us since we arrived.”

The children are all settled at local schools. Husband Alex, who used to run his own construction business, and Natalie, who has experience in teaching and as a PA, are both hoping to get jobs soon.

Waving her arms around what she calls “paradise” Natalie admits she still has moments when she longs for her home.

Wiping away tears, she said: “Yesterday I cried all day. I miss my mum and my country. We had so many plans for the future. Now all we can do is live day by day.

“But at least we are safe, and for that I am eternally grateful.”