It was the day Russian forces launched their full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Inna lost the life she had spent decades building – her career as a consultant rheumatologist, her home and her sense of safety. 

Three years on, as the war continues in Ukraine, and bombs still go off in Kharkiv, she is practising medicine again in London and helping other refugee health workers find their footing in the UK.

“Before the war, I thought I’d reached everything I wanted,” she said. “I had my career, my family, my home. There was never any thought of leaving.” 

Inna’s story traces the journey of one of more than 260,000 Ukrainians who found safety in the United Kingdom following the invasion – a journey marked by loss, resilience and the transformative power of welcome. 

It also highlights what happens when skilled refugees are given the chance to contribute. 

Escaping the war with help 

When the war broke out, and as fighting intensified and buildings around them were destroyed, Inna and her family – her two daughters, her parents and her cat – fled Kharkiv with only a few documents and belongings, thinking that they would return home within a couple of days.

Driving for more than 26 hours through Ukraine, Moldova and Romania, the family were welcomed by strangers sharing food, safety and kindness.

“I still remember them,” she said of the volunteers who chose to help. “Like part of the family.”

After travelling through Bulgaria and reconnecting with friends she had met years earlier in London, Inna arrived in the UK in May 2022 through the Homes for Ukraine scheme, a community-led initiative that allows people across the UK to sponsor Ukrainians fleeing the war by offering safe accommodation and the chance to rebuild their lives.

Starting over, one step at a time

Like many people forced to flee to another country, Inna faced barriers to returning to her profession, including language challenges and lack of recognition of her qualifications. 

She began in an administrative role with the Lewisham and Greenwich Trust of the UK’s National Health Service, NHS, in southeast London.

Her NHS colleagues became what she calls her ‘work family’. They helped with her English, built her confidence and encouraged her to sit the exams needed to practise as a doctor in the UK.

“They believed in me much more than I believed in myself,” she said.

She passed all the required exams and returned to rheumatology, her chosen specialty, providing care directly to patients once more. 

Of the more than 260,000 Ukrainians who have arrived in the UK since the invasion, over 60,000 are now employed across different sectors of the economy.

Building a network for refugee health workers

Inna’s journey did not stop there. Working alongside other displaced health-care professionals, she helped establish the Ukrainian Medical Charity, a national network supporting refugee doctors, nurses and health workers to access NHS employment opportunities.

Her advocacy has also helped shape the NHS Refugee Employment Programme, which assists refugees from many backgrounds into roles across the UK health service.

“Refugees want to give back to this country, and we have a duty to welcome them as well,” said Kathleen, a rheumatology clinical nurse specialist and Inna’s colleague.

Today, Inna balances work and family life in London “just like an ordinary person”, she says. What stays with her most is what she experienced in different countries, new neighbourhoods and hospital corridors: the power of welcome.

“When you’re forced to flee, it’s like your roots are cut,” Inna says. “The NHS and the people around me helped me grow new ones. That stability, that kindness, it changes everything – like the sunshine on your garden.”

What of Donald Trump’s suggestion that people should move, temporarily or permanently, to Egypt or Jordan?

Egyptian and Jordanian officials were quick to condemn the suggestion. Both countries fear the social and security implications of a sudden influx of traumatised refugees.

“Jordan is for Jordanians and Palestine is for Palestinians,” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said. His country is already home to 2.4 million registered Palestinian refugees.

Among Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet colleagues, President Trump’s suggestion received an enthusiastic welcome.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who favours Israeli annexation and settlement of the Gaza Strip, called it “a great idea”.

Last year, speaking at a conference of supporters, he talked of creating “a situation where Gaza’s population will be reduced to half its current size in two years”.

Unless Gaza is quickly rehabilitated and Gazans are given a glimpse of a better future, Smotrich may have his way.

“I think for the first few months, they will see what will happen,” journalist Ghada el-Kurd says. “If they lost everything and the reconstruction process is delayed, I think people will not stay in Gaza.”

Around 150,000 people have already left since the war began in October 2023.

Ghada says she expects others who can afford it to follow, seeking futures in the Arab world or beyond, while the poorest and most vulnerable are left behind.

“I agree with Trump that people deserve a better life,” she says. “But why not in Gaza?”

Meanwhile, Sam Higginson, the chief executive of Royal Devon Healthcare NHS Trust, says he is “deeply disappointed” that the redevelopment of his North Devon District Hospital may have to wait until 2038.

“For us that’s too far in the future,” he says. “There is a limit how long we can run that infrastructure for and we are right at that limit.”

He says he would be seeking money from NHS England and the government to try to keep the operating theatres and A&E running as best they can, warning otherwise the drive to tackle the hospital waiting list could be hit.

The government has said it is committed to the projects. But, as they will all now slip into the next Parliament and, as such, there is no money yet committed to cover the costs, there is real concern behind the scenes about whether this timetable can even be kept to.

“They’ve kicked us all into the long grass,” says one NHS leader, who wished to remain anonymous. “A commitment to do something in 10 years’ time is almost meaningless.”

Matthew Taylor, head of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, says he understands such concerns, adding: “They feel let down.”

And he says the government will need to take into account how compromised the NHS leaders are with their dilapidated estates when it comes to judging their performance in the coming years.