'This war broke our life': Children left stranded in Ukraine without parents due to UK visa changes

Ulyana Trapova is woken by her husband calling her in the middle of the night. Russia has invaded Ukraine. They are at war. All she feels is panic. Her husband is away in Poland and she is alone at home with their two children. How will they keep safe? They don’t have a bomb shelter. What will they do for food?

The 39-year-old mother from Drohobych, in the Lviv region of Ukraine, never imagined war would separate her from her children. She has found sanctuary in Scotland and thought she could find a way to bring her children to safety, but they remain in a war zone and she is terrified for their lives.

“This war broke our whole life,” she says. “It separated me from my family. I can’t do without them. They are everything to me. We are one. It is very difficult for me morally and psychologically. I never left them alone. We were always together. We breathed together. We travelled together. I want us to be together and never be apart again.”

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Ukrainian families like Trapova’s have been torn apart by war, but also by “abrupt regressive changes” made to the visa schemes in the UK by the Conservative government. 

A new report by the Work Rights Centre and Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA) has found that “desperate families separated by war have been left unable to reunite” because of the changes. 

It means children are left stranded in Ukraine without their parents and Ukrainian people in the UK are battling with their mental health. Researchers warn that urgent action must be taken to reverse the changes and “prevent further loss of life”.

The war between Ukraine and Russia continues to escalate. Ukrainian troops launched a surprise attack across the border into the Russian region of Kursk earlier in August, while Russia continues to grind forward in the east of Ukraine. Death tolls are rising so fast that counters are unable to keep up.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) verified a total of 35,160 civilian casualties during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as of 31 July 2024. This included 23,640 injuries and 11,520 fatalities. But the real figures could be far higher.

Trapova is in tears as she remembers the start of the war. Speaking in Ukrainian with the help of a translator, she describes how she had asked her employer if she could stay home with her son, now 14, and her daughter, 10. 

But she was asked to come to work. When she got there, the facts of the invasion became clear and they were sent home with salary paid in advance. She tried to buy groceries but people were in panic, grabbing all the food they could.

After she and her husband lost their jobs following the invasion, they worried about how they would survive financially as well as having to navigate a war zone. Then a friend told her about the visa schemes in the UK. She applied for visas for herself and her children through the Homes for Ukraine Scheme with the Scottish government as their sponsor.

But only she was given approval as her children’s passports were expired. Due to financial pressures and the hope that she would have a better chance of bringing her children to safety if she was in the UK, she decided to take the visa opportunity and arrived in Scotland in September 2022.

“I have to live somehow,” Trapova says. “The children want to eat every day, and I dared to take this step, to come here. This step was the most difficult in my life – to leave the family that I never left, the children, without whom I cannot imagine my life.”

Trapova has lived in emergency shared accommodation for Ukrainians and has secured a job with income to provide for her family, but changes in sponsorship rules mean that she is unable to bring her son and daughter over to be with her.

These changes, announced by the last government in February without any public consultation and almost immediate effect, made Ukrainians ineligible to sponsor their family under the Homes For Ukraine Scheme.

The government also ended the Ukraine Family Scheme and announced the closure of the Ukraine Extension Scheme.

It means that Trapova can only bring her children over if a British person acts as their sponsor, but that is challenging when she speaks little English.

Around 80% of Ukrainians surveyed by the Work Rights Centre and ILPA are finding it difficult or very difficult to find a sponsor. 

“It’s getting harder,” Trapova says, “knowing that they’re in Ukraine, in danger. There are all these air sirens signalling there is danger. I am worried all the time, constantly. There are lots of issues in Ukraine. There is no electricity. No water. Recently, there have been three attacks on my city, which is very hard, knowing that my family is still there.”

Trapova is terrified that her husband will be called into the army and there will be no one to look after their children in Ukraine. In March 2025, her emergency accommodation is due to come to an end and she will be homeless.

The last government claimed that Ukraine is “no longer in an active migration crisis” but researchers argue that the need for sanctuary remains urgent and widespread. As many as 87% of survey respondents needed sanctuary for themselves or a family member.

Labour had pledged to review the Ukraine visa schemes once in power. Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol, the chief executive of the Work Rights Centre, says “they must make good on that promise to prevent further loss of life, and undo the damage inflicted by the Conservative government”. 

“It is cruelly absurd that a parent cannot sponsor their own child,” Vicol adds. “I ask Keir Starmer whether his government is one that prioritises bringing down immigration numbers at any cost, or reuniting families in crisis?”

Among Ukrainians in the UK, 93% say that being separated from their family is impacting their mental health, and 42% say it is impacting their ability to integrate.

Nadiia Yashan, immigration advisor at the Work Rights Centre who also still has family in Ukraine, says: “Parents are being separated from children, being separated from partners, from elderly parents. It has a huge impact on their mental health.

“Being separated from a family is not easy, especially as it has a human cause. Most of these Ukrainian nationals are separated because of the war and, because of the changes to the Ukraine schemes, they are unable to reunite.”

Yashan was trying to get her mother over from Ukraine when the visa changes happened. She had to find accommodation with a spare room to meet the rules of the scheme – but by the time she found a place she could afford, she could no longer sponsor her mother. She has space for her to live and can take care of her, but her mother is not allowed to come.

“I’m worried all the time and I feel guilty,” Yashan says. “Maybe I should have done it sooner. But it’s not easy. Finding accommodation takes time. I just feel these changes to the Ukraine schemes with no notice made it impossible for Ukrainians to manage the situation properly.”

The Work Rights Centre and ILPA are calling on the government to reverse the visa scheme changes, so that Ukrainians living in the UK can act as sponsors for other Ukrainians, and for the Ukraine Family Scheme to be reinstated to reunite families.

The Home Office denied to comment but is expected to review the Ukraine visa schemes in “due course”.

Zoe Bantleman, legal director at the IPLA, says: “The abrupt regressive changes to the Ukraine Schemes, which decimated available safe routes, show none of the generosity of humanitarian spirit of which we are told the UK should be proud.

“Instead, desperate families separated by war have been left unable to reunite. Ukrainians in the UK without settled status have been left unable to share in the hosting of their compatriots to reduce homelessness. Individuals here on the Ukraine Schemes have been left in a precarious state.”

Yashan adds: “I don’t say that there are no options allowed for Ukrainians, but they’re very limited, and making it almost impossible for people to get safety while there is war ongoing.”

Find out more about how to act as a sponsor for a Ukrainian family here.

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