Mayor of Ukrainian town 'forever grateful' for welcome to new home in Somerset
Watch Richard Payne's report
One of the first Ukrainian families to move to the South West under the government's refugee scheme has told ITV News they will be forever grateful to the people of Somerset.
The Sukhovych family arrived in Watchet through the Homes for Ukraine scheme after fleeing the war and waiting several weeks in Poland for their UK visas.
They are being hosted indefinitely by a local family, who have criticised the time it took for the government to process their offer.
Ievgen Sukhovych has arrived with his wife, Vira, and their three-year-old son, Vasyl.
"We are and will always be Ukrainians but at this point we feel a very deep connection with English people and we feel like we've found our second home," said Vira who has had to leave behind her parents and 95-year-old grandmother.
Ievgen added: "We are happy to learn the culture here, to learn the language, to become one of them, this great country. We will be forever grateful for accepting us."
Their host Lucy Shaw said chasing for news of the visas was tiring and stressful.
"After 15 days you start thinking 'what else can I do?'" she said. "I thought I'd explored all avenues and then, thankfully, two of the three visas came through, then the third, which was just amazing."
The family have left a once comfortable life just outside Lviv in the west of Ukraine. Vira and Ievgen are lawyers and he was the mayor of his local town.
He queued for two days to join his eldest son in signing up to fight, but was told he was too old so led his family over the border as Russian forces advanced.
Ievgen said: "Every day sirens, air raids, we would have to go to the shelter and the little one would ask 'why so loud, why those sirens, why do we have to go there, why so many people dying?'"
The peace of Watchet is, they say, striking, as is the warmth of the welcome. Others in the town are opening their doors to refugees while 20 offers of help including work have already been made to the Sukhovych's