A UKRAINIAN man whose family is being hosted by a Wem couple has praised people for making him and his family feel welcome in the town.

Volodymyr Cherepovskyi arrived in Wem recently with his wife Ann, son Vladimir and daughter Virginia and they are being hosted by Gareth and Susan Griffiths.

He explained: "People are very helpful, and are asking if there are any problems or needs.

"It is a very nice community here. People are very interested, people are asking if we are okay, open to give advice if we need any.

"We are lucky to have a very good host family."

The Cherepovskyi family come from the city of Berdyansk which 35 miles to the south of Mariupol in the south east of the country.

Both cities were captured and are currently occupied by Russian forces.

The father of two said he was working as a HGV driver in Europe at the time of the Russian invasion.

"I was working in Europe when this crisis began," he said.

"My wife and children, they were in Ukraine at that time.

"They had to spend a couple of weeks outside the city hiding from possible bombing.

"They managed to get into the city and stay there for an extra two weeks.

"When the corridor was allowed for the citizens to leave the city, they managed to collect their stuff and my wife just had to drive the car.

"Luckily they reached Ukrainian controlled territory safely and then I met her in Poland."

The HGV driver spoke about not being able to communicate with his family when they were in Ukraine.

He added: "I was quite nervous because I was in a cab, it was about 3,000km (1,864miles) from them and having no possibility to help them.

"The next three to four weeks were very difficult for us because the mobile network was not stable, sometimes no internet and no way to communicate with the family."

Volodymyr expressed his gratitude to the UK Government for the help he and his family has received.

He added: "We are very grateful to the UK Government.

"And not only Government but people, people are surprisingly open and willing to help.

"I told a couple of people we will do our best not to disappoint UK community.

"We don't want to be a burden. I was lucky to find a job quickly."

Volodymyr's daughter will start school on Tuesday, May 24 and he will be starting his new job as a HGV driver next week.

Since the the Russian invasion, more than 53,000 Ukrainians have arrived in the UK.