Grant Shapps and the Ukrainian family he took into his home 10 months ago have spoken to Sky News about the experience for the first time.
The cabinet minister, who lives with his wife and grown-up twins in his Hertfordshire constituency, joined the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which has seen British families open their doors to those fleeing the conflict.
They welcomed Snezhana Chaykina, her now seven-year-old son Nikita, and her 75-year-old mother Hanna, who left their home in Kyiv with their dog Max last year.
He said the scheme had been “overall a huge success” and a “sobering” experience, which had affected how he approached cabinet discussions on support for Ukraine.
Snezhana, an IT manager for a travel firm, left behind her husband and their new apartment to take a leap into the unknown when the Russian bombardment began.
The family crossed into Poland where they posted an advert on a Facebook group about the British scheme, which was spotted by Mr Shapps’ daughter.
Ms Chaykina’s family has been staying with Mr Shapps
They are all happily living in his home and expect to stay there for the coming months, he said.
“We had a happy life in Ukraine”, she said, until an early morning phone call from her sister in Germany last February.
“She told us there are bombs falling on Ukraine. I told her, you are kidding, it cannot be, it just sounds mad.
“Then I started to check the news and I found it. The war has begun. And of course, this forced us to leave the country.
“First, I thought that it would be for a couple of weeks, then a couple of months. Now it seems probably it might take a couple of years, I’m not sure.”
Ms Chaykina says she initially thought she would only have to leave her home for a couple of weeks
‘We’ve given your room to three Ukrainians and a dog’
Arriving last April, all three family members and the dog are sharing the old bedroom of Shapps’ eldest son, who was at university when the war broke out, and has now moved out.
“We told him we’ve given your room to three Ukrainians and a dog!”, Mr Shapps said.
Nikita attends the local school in Hatfield and can now speak and read English, while Snezhana works from home and is in regular touch with colleagues in Ukraine.
Her husband, who was given a medical discharge from the military with a leg injury, has recently travelled to Poland and hopes to reunite with his family in the UK.
She says she and Mr Shapps have “a lot in common” but that the pair do not discuss UK politics, except the Ukraine situation.
His wife Belinda had first raised the idea of taking in refugees, shortly before the conflict began.
“It’s just become completely normal, we pretty much operate as one family,” the energy secretary said, making a peanut butter sandwich for Nikita.
“We eat together, put on the dishwasher and those types of household things. It’s an extended family.”
Read more:
What has happened to refugees taken in under Homes for Ukraine scheme?
Ukrainian refugees staying in UK facing homelessness
Britain granted more than 150,000 visas under the Home for Ukraine scheme, and 218,000 in total through other schemes, including family reunion.
Host families were asked to commit to at least six months, and paid expenses at a flat rate of £350 a month.
But with no end in sight to the conflict, the latest figures show more than 4,200 Ukrainians received homelessness support from local authorities and some are sleeping rough.
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UK refugees face homelessness
Shapps hasn’t changed stance on small boat crackdown
A group of 70 cross-party MPs, including former home secretary Priti Patel, wrote to the government last week to call for more support.
In November, ONS data suggested 17% of Ukrainian adults who came on these schemes are now renting privately, while 59% were still living with a sponsor, despite most working.
Mr Shapps said: “I think we feel a lot in common with Ukrainians because we went through the Blitz and they’re going through their country being bombed, and against the odds, withstanding all that evil from Putin.
“I found it very helpful because every time we’re discussing what’s happening in Ukraine, in Cabinet, in the back of my mind or when I get home, I’m reminded about the reality of the policies and what it actually means.
“Literally in our own kitchen. I think it’s quite a salutary and sobering thing to experience government policy quite so close to home.”
But it has not changed his mind about the government’s attempts to crack down on small boats, some of them carrying people who have fled warzone.
Mr Shapps said: “My view is we can’t have a situation where there’s a way into this country by illegal means, by being people trafficked from countries which are already safe, like France.
“So it doesn’t change my view about that at all. It’s absolutely right that stopping the small boats is one of our top priorities.
“And that’s entirely different from being a country that has a big heart and always goes out of its way to help in the world.”
Other MPs who have taken in Ukrainian refugees include Conservative ministers Robert Jenrick and Victoria Prentis, Norfolk MP Duncan Baker and Middlesborough Labour MP Andy McDonald.