UK-based Ukrainians pray for calm as fears for family grow over threat of Russia escalation
Watch more from ITV News Anglia's Natalie Gray
Ukrainians living in the UK are saying prayers for their family back at home, as the situation in Eastern Europe escalates.
Russia has now ordered troops into two rebel-held regions of the country after recognising them as independent states, a move which has sparked condemnation from western countries including the UK and US.
At St Olga's in Peterborough, a Ukrainian Catholic church, members of the community have been collecting supplies to be sent to help anyone displaced by fighting.
They are also gathering basic supplies such as first aid boxes and toiletries for the Ukrainian army.
Irina Pitka, 54, moved to Peterborough 23 years ago. She said: "What is going through my head is fear and anger, of course, for this evil occupation.
"I am worried most of all for my older sister who still lives in Ukraine, my father-in-law and all the older people. I also worry for my family because it affects every single one of us.
"We trust the Ukrainian army and we trust the west which is now showing tremendous support. It may look like life there is normal, children going to school, but inside every single person is fear."
Student Oleksii Burov, 21, is in his third year studying international relations and politics at the University of East Anglia. He is an only child, his father is a surgeon and his mother an economist and they live in the capital Kyiv.
Mr Burov said he was concerned about the future of his homeland and grateful to be in the UK as if he was at home he might be expected to fight.
He said: "It's been going on since 2014, we've been living in a state of war for eight years now. It's OK for us as we are in the centre and a well off area.
"Some of my family are concerned and are trying to avoid speaking about the issue, while myself and my father are being vocal and supporting the Ukrainian side of the narrative.
"Towards Ukraine, Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has been good, it's surprising how much he is vocal about this and how much aid Ukraine is receiving. However in the wider community there's not a lot of discussion going on."
In Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, second-generation Ukrainian Michael Prokopiuk, 70, said he was very angry about the crisis.
His mother was from Lviv a city to the west of the capital Kyiv and near the border with Poland. She was taken as a prisoner of war when she was a teenager and moved to Britain for safety after being liberated towards the end of the Second World War.
His father, also Ukrainian, escaped the country in the 1940s and his family settled in Rushden, where he was born. Mr Prokopiuk said it was “so very sad".
"It’s a desperate situation that I can’t put into words.”
He referred to those in Ukraine as his “brothers and sisters who are suffering”.
Mr Prokopiuk added: “They must be completely frightened, wondering what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day. The British government has to do everything they can. We are all going to suffer. People in Ukraine, people in England and elsewhere in Europe”.
Anastasiia Medvedieva, 18, is from Kyiv and is studying psychology at UEA in Norwich.
She is constantly checking news updates on her phone with concerns about her parents and five-year-old brother back home.
She hopes to go back to Ukraine for the Easter holidays and while she doesn't think there will be an all out war she is still very concerned.
She said: "I am worried about my parents, I'm glad they are in the capital rather than the eastern regions. They are not thinking of moving now, only in the worst-case scenario.
"I'm feeling quite worried about the situation especially as I am not in Ukraine, I can't see what it's like, so I am quite anxious about it, even more so than my parents because they are quite optimistic about the whole situation."