It is hard being away from your home country, as a 23-year-old student who moved to the city from Ukraine just two months ago shared. 

It is even harder when you wake up one morning to find out your country is at war and your friends and family are in danger.

Oxford Mail:

This morning, Roman Tokaryk, from Chernivtsi in West Ukraine, received an overwhelming amount of messages from friends in Eastern Ukraine who had 'taken their things and left' and sought refuge with his family. 

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Oxford Mail:

He said: "The situation is intense and people are scared.

”It was really terrible. Of course, we will try to provide as much help and as many beds as possible.

“Fortunately, fingers crossed, there were no bombarding [in West Ukraine] yet so [my family] are relatively safe but with this news, we don’t know what can happen every moment."

Mr Tokaryk also shared that school children in his town were told to go home as "it's very dangerous to gather many children in the same location."

His little brother is among them, and his family have closed their business so as to avoid points of gatherings which Roman described as sites of potential attacks from Russia.

The student joined the demonstration organised by the University of Oxford's Ukrainian society today at 12pm on Broad Street to attract attention to this issue. 

He felt it was important to demonstrate as, he said, "Silence is equal to toleration and we want to show that we will stand up with Ukraine and fight for this.”

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