Ukrainian refugee in Darlington sad she can't celebrate Christmas over there
It's the third year many Ukrainians are celebrating Christmas in the UK
A Ukrainian refugee in Darlington says it's sad she can't celebrate Christmas in her home country yet again.
Snegana Pazin fled from Kyiv when Russia started the war three years ago.
Many Europeans in the UK are having their Christmas today.
Snegana said: "It's sad that I can't celebrate in Ukraine this Christmas again. It's hard but I wish that this would be the last Christmas with war. I want Ukraine to have a Christmas present that the war has stopped and we win.
"For Ukrainians at Christmas, we have 12 dishes of a lot of different foods. We have a lot of different kind of fish, a lot of different salads, we have some special dishes called 'kutya' which is like sweet rice with raisins, nuts, and some sweet water. We have dumplings and cabbage rolls with meat and rice inside it.
"I really like Christmas dinner in England. I like Yorkshire pudding, I like gravy, I like vegetables with gravy and roast beef.
"Mashed potatoes are a tradition for us as well in Ukraine, as well as Christmas dinner, but I like mixing English gravy with Ukrainian stuff. With the vegetables, I have it during Christmas but also during the year.
"Your tradition is your country and I like it. I like that you don't spend a lot time in the kitchen to cook as for Ukrainian people it's totally different. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, it's like our therapy."