“I’ve always been a person who takes responsibility,” says Olena Prokhorova. But four years ago, the mum of two from Kyiv, then 40, could never have imagined what was coming. On 24 February 2022, she woke at 4am to explosions as Ukraine came under attack from Russia. Within hours, she and her teenage children, Pavlo and Yelyzaveta, had fled the capital and boarded an evacuation train to Poland. Leaving meant abandoning her home, her job and her friends. But Olena also had to make another heartbreaking decision: without a car, her beloved Labrador, Taffy, would have to stay behind. “It was completely impossible to take her with us,” says Olena. “There were crowds of people, all scared and running over each other to get on the trains.” The heartbreak of separation Olena left Taffy with her parents, who had refused to leave Kyiv. “What I didn’t realise at that moment was that I wouldn’t see Taffy for the next three years,” she says. After reaching Poland, Olena and her children travelled to the UK to live with a friend in Cambridge who sponsored them under the Homes for Ukraine scheme. She found work as a catering assistant and eventually moved her family into rented accommodation. Only then, in January 2025, could Olena think about bringing Taffy to the UK. She now had a car, and drove to the Polish border to meet her parents – and finally reunite with Taffy. But seeing her again took Olena by surprise. “I didn’t recognise her,” she says. “She was extremely thin, and her body was covered in lumps. She was clearly stressed from all the loud bombing. “I’d seen videos of dogs reuniting with their family, and they’re so happy. But Taffy was not happy to see me. She couldn’t forgive me for leaving her in Ukraine.” An unexpected vet bill