North Oxfordshire MP offers home to Vika, 25, fleeing Ukraine

Ms Prentis has offered a home to Vika, a 25-year-old office worker from Kyiv, who became friends with Ms Prentis' daughter Tilly when she spent some months in Ukraine.

Vika arrived last week and is staying at Ms Prentis' constituency home in Somerton, near Banbury.

The Conservative MP said: “Our aim is for Vika to have a really useful time here. It’ll be an educational experience.

“She’ll pick up some really useful skills and then she’ll go home to rebuild Kyiv - as soon as it is safe.”

Vika arrived with one suitcase but was welcomed with a pile of donated clothes, new Gap jeans and a £100 Zara voucher from other villagers.

She said: “The first thing, when I came to my bedroom, was I cried because I saw all these bags were full of clothes and things they had donated to me.

“It was just amazing to see all of those things and clothes and stuff. It’s so much appreciated. I want to say thank you to everyone who was involved in that because it’s really so kind.”

Vika, who was forced to leave her parents in southern Ukraine, told how she escaped after her how mother called her at 5am telling her simply “the war has started”.

Soon after the invasion, a van full of weapons turned up and people were encouraged to take a gun “to defend their families”.

Vika stayed in Kyiv but decided to flee “when there were two huge explosions somewhere nearby” after she had gone out to use a cashpoint.

That evening she and a friend travelled to Lviv in a train with blacked-out windows.

“It was terrifying, just horrible,” she said.

When they got to the Polish border, she was collected by a friend of her father, who took her to Prague.

After spending a fortnight filling in the required paperwork, she set off for the UK.

Now Vika is settling down in the Prentis' home and making “varenyky” - Ukrainian dumplings - with Tilly.

It is Vika’s first visit to England, but, she said, "It doesn’t feel like a holiday for me.

"Everything that’s happening is surreal for me, and I don’t really understand where I am now."

Vika arrived during last week's unseasonal spell of sunshine. 

“My first question when I came to England was, like, ‘Do you have such weather?’ she said. “And my friend told me not to get used to that because it is not actually [always like this].”

Vika thanked English families for offering homes to Ukrainian refugees and urged more to come forward.

She said: “English people are so kind because they’re trying to think how we are feeling.

"They’re trying to think how it feels when you have nothing and when you have these disasters happening in your country.

“It could be really nice to have Ukrainian in your family because we are mostly fairly open and really nice people.”

Vika plans to work in the UK and donate her earnings to Ukraine’s war effort but her goal is to return to Ukraine as soon as it is safe.

She said: “As soon as possible, I would love to come back. Now I’m actually even more proud that I am Ukrainian than I’ve ever been before.

“Living in Kyiv now would be much more amazing than it was before because I appreciate it more.”

She added: “When you had a normal walk in Kyiv before, it was just like a normal walk. Now I would probably be so excited and so happy to just walk there, just walk there without any bombing and any explosion.

“I would appreciate that much more. And I am so proud of my nation - they are unbelievable.”

Christopher Hope’s interview with Victoria Prentis and Vika features on Chopper's Politics, The Telegraph's weekly political podcast.