'My family is living in a bomb shelter': London Ukrainian students living with war anxiety

Every alert on their phone is a moment of anxiety for three Ukrainian international students in London.

“I sleep like five hours a night and I wake up just shaking,” says Arsenii Matviienko, a television and film student.

His stress is shared by Svitlana Struhyn and Pavlo Byk.

All three are among hundreds of Ukrainians studying at London’s Western University, Fanshawe College and private trade schools.

Byk, an aviation student, arrived back in Canada just two weeks before the start of the Russian invasion.

“At the time, we were suspecting this stuff could happen. And I was quite stressed out by the situation. My dad told me you have to leave Ukraine.”

While Byk’s family remains safe in Lviv, Strughyn’s family is in the combat zone near Kyiv. “My family is living in a bomb shelter for a week now.”

Strughyn is in London to study in the footsteps of her dad. “My father is a journalist,” she says.

Now she fears his profession will make him a target of the Russian military if her hometown is occupied.

Her parents tell her not to worry as they repeat how happy they are that she is safe in Canada.“My mom calls and says, I am so thankful you are there. I’m so thankful you’re not in this nightmare.”

But for Matviienko, the nightmare is on two fronts. While most of his family are in the Crimea Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, his father is fighting on the mainland for Ukraine.

“I feel the situation from both sides. I’m so worried about my father, my friends, in Ukraine.”

The worry has led to challenges at school academically and financially. Byk says so far, educators have been supportive of Ukrainian students.

“If you explain the situation, that you are from Ukraine. They are more than happy to give you an extension.”

But as the Russian invasion leaves their families fearing for their lives and livelihoods, the students need money to stay in London, potentially for some time.

“I will do as much as I can do to survive. But I don’t know what to do to help my family and how they’re going to live,” Matviienko tells CTV London.

The father of Arsenii Matviienko is seen in this recent photo from Ukraine. CTV London has blurred his face at the request of family. (Submitted)

So, as they volunteer to help the relief effort at the Ukrainian Centre, they also set up a website where people can donate to help them. It will go live later this week.

Meanwhile, the compassion of the London area, Canada and beyond keeps their spirits up.

“It’s giving me hope, that if the world stands with Ukraine it’s going to be independent as it was,” Struhyn concludes.