A UKRAINIAN family who settled in Clydebank after being displaced by war have told of their progress nearly a year on.

Natalia and Aleks Lutsyk travelled to Scotland with their three young sons in July after fleeing their beloved home in Kharkiv – Ukraine’s second-largest city – after it came under relentless shelling from Russian forces.

Since the last time that the Post caught up with Natalia in August, a lot has changed for the family with Aleks starting a new job and the couple’s eldest sons starting school.

The family has also moved out of their temporary home in the Holiday Inn at Glasgow Airport to a flat in the town.

Natalia said: “From August 11 we have been living in Clydebank. We have a good flat and my boys go to school.

“My husband is now working and he’s making good progress at the company, we are so grateful.

"We are still learning about the area [Clydebank] because it is so different for us.

“It’s a different culture so for us it’s difficult but we will try. We have good Scottish friends, everyone is so good.”

Shortly after arriving in Scotland the Lutsyk family – alongside a number of other Ukrainian families - were offered support from local charity Old Kilpatrick Food Parcels (OKFP).

Now, almost one year on Natalia continues to attend regular meetings with other Ukrainian families at OKFP’s ‘Chatty Café’.

She described the charity as being like a “second family”.

Natalia added: “OKFP is our second family, it’s a good place for us. Maureen was the first person to give us her hand to help up with everything.

“Sometimes we will try to help out here a little bit by volunteering. We are trying to help Ukrainian families who have just come here as well as those still in Ukraine.

“Maureen is helping us collect stuff for them.”

Reflecting on the past year Natalia explained “everything has changed” for the family and that she is looking forward to seeing what the future holds.

Her two eldest sons Zakhar and Nikita aged ten and six respectively have started school and are enjoying learning musical instruments.

A very different reality to March last year as they were forced to pack up their lives and leave their home.

Natalia said: “We left Ukraine on March 2. Everything was unexpected, everything was unknown. We didn’t plan to move outside of Ukraine or to a different country.

“First we lived in the Czech Republic with our friends and then we decided to go to Scotland because my husband worked in Scotland fifteen years ago.

“It was the right decision. In August we were refugees now everything is different.”