After struggling for seven months to find a permanent home, the couple returned to Ukraine in September and are now living in the western city of Uzhhorod – despite the prospect of electricity and heating outages due to Russian missile strikes.“We doubled our budget and more; we had a very strict list of requirements and we just kept going ‘OK, well, compromise on this, compromise on this, compromise on this’.
Mr Place said because Russia has been hitting Ukrainian infrastructure with missile strikes, they are prepared for electricity and heating outages.“They’re trying to get people to get prepared that you might lose the electricity and heating for a bit,” he said.The couple, who met while they were both teaching English in Ukraine in 2019, will continue to go “back and forth” to the UK to see friends and family and for Mr Place’s work – but the majority of this he is doing remotely in Ukraine.
Mr Place said it would cost them up to £1,500 a month to rent in the UK, compared with £500 in Ukraine, and housing agencies and landlords were asking for a previous year’s tax statement or six months of income in a UK bank account, which they could not provide.He said money the couple already had in their Ukrainian bank accounts was not accepted and landlords had been repeatedly turning down their applications.
Mr Place said there is a “possibility” he and his wife will decide to return to the UK next spring, but they do not want to plan far ahead because of the war.A government spokesperson said: “Taken together, our generous Homes for Ukraine and Ukraine Family schemes are one of the fastest and biggest visa programmes in UK history, with over 196,000 visas issued and more expected to come through these uncapped routes.
“We expect Ukrainians entering the UK through the Ukraine Family Scheme to be primarily supported by family members, but they are also entitled to three years’ leave to remain and full access to work, study and benefits — including Universal Credit.