When Anastacia Kozmina and Oleksiyy Danko woke to the sound of bombing in February 2022, they immediately decided to leave Ukraine. They joined some eight million Ukrainian refugees faced with finding a safe place to live and work. The couple arrived in the UK where they found people to be "warm-hearted" and "supportive", but finding jobs was hard. So they started their own business. Ukraine refugees have been scattered all over the world. This is the story of how many Ukrainians are finding ways of earning a living somewhere new. 'It was a really hard period for us' In Ukraine, Anastasia worked as a lawyer; Oleksiyy was a qualified pharmacist. They also dry-cleaned furniture to make extra money. Anastacia said when the bombing began on 24 February 2022, she knew she did not want to live in a warzone. The couple had friends who had moved to England, so they put an appeal on Facebook for a sponsor - and eventually arrived in Southport, Merseyside. "It was a really hard period for us," Anastacia says. "I stopped doing my make-up, my nails, my hair... I needed six months to refresh, to understand that I am in a safe place." Anastacia tried to find work as a lawyer but because the UK has a different legal system she couldn't, so the couple decided to use their side-hustle skills and started a business dry-cleaning furniture. They has some leaflets printed, and were surprised to receive calls from people who wanted items cleaning, items that were not actually dirty. "One time Oleksiyy went to clean a small sofa and this lady gave us some beautiful flowers because she wants to support us. She waned to help us, she was really warm-hearted," she says. They are hoping to continue to build the business: "In England we have another life, we have an opportunity to develop ourselves, to grow," she says. 'I know that I can have a better life' Yulia left Ukraine three months after the war began. She found a sponsor in Nottingham and drove for three days with her two daughters and their dog. Yulia asked us not to use her surname because her husband is still in Ukraine. Back home, she ran a successful wedding-dress business and her sponsor suggested she start it up again. "It's a crazy idea, but I think I can try... my profession is my life," she says. A friend of Yulia's husband, who was driving to the UK, brought over her sewing machines, fabrics and mannequins. "It's not easy because system of business in England is different, it's not like in Ukraine," says Yulia. She struggled to make her wedding-dress business off the ground in the UK, so decided to use her skills and passion to find a full-time sewing job. Yulia says, although it's been disappointing not to be able to keep her business going, she is happy with her new life. "We have a nice place, we have nice work, family... I do what I like to do, so I can say that I am lucky." She says with a bit more time she will try again to get her business going.