Three years ago today, on February 24 2022, Russia launched it’s invasion of Ukraine.

Since then residents of the South Hams have got behind Ukrainians whether by raising funds, transporting aid or even housing families feeing the war.

The first family to move to Devon was the Bulhakova family which settled in Kingsbridge.

Teenager Anastasia said: “It felt like the war came from nowhere.

“I had no idea my life was about to turn upside down.

“We woke up at four in the morning to the sound of bombs dropping in my city, and messages flooding into my phone saying that a war had started.”

Tatyana Dankova and her four children 12 year old Kostya, eight year old Mirra, six year old Solomiia and two year old Mark now live in Hope Cove.

Vitali and Jane Hrynova along with their eight year old daughter Polina moved to Modbury.

They lived in Kharkiv and sadly their home was reduced to rubble.

Plymouth Ukraine Medical Aid (PUMA) which includes a number of volunteers from the South Hams are about to leave on their 31st trip on March 6th.

Founder Ali Piper says: “I think there is going to be another mass of people fleeing from Donetsk and Zaporizhia in the east.

“Everyone is frightened and don’t know what is going to happen next.”

Elsewhere a number of men from Stoke Gabriel have been drivers on Ukrainian Action conveys taking trucks full of aid supplies from the UK to Poland, where Ukrainian volunteers take them on to their final destinations near the front line.

Kingsbridge business owners Tim Jones (Start Point Finance) and Tony Doidge (A N D Plumbing) travelled to Ukraine to take supplies.

Their trip was part of Pickups 4 Peace’s campaign, which is a charity run by volunteers from the UK farming community, supplying convoys of four-by-four vehicles to Ukraine.

Also under the banner of Pickups 4 Peace Dartmouth grandmother and Rotarian Mary Burden went on a humanitarian mission to deliver aid to war torn Ukraine.

She drove a pick-up truck taking goods to Lviv which is the largest city in Western Ukraine.

A number of men from Stoke Gabriel have been drivers on Ukrainian Action conveys taking trucks full of aid supplies from the UK to Poland, where Ukrainian volunteers take them on to their final destinations near the front line.

Kingsbridge and Salcombe Ukraine Aid led by Andrew Dyas have made three aid runs to the Ukraine border.

Staff at Devon County Council's Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) in Ivybridge have been working closely with a local charity to help families affected by the war in Ukraine.

The facility is operated on Devon County Council’s behalf by SUEZ recycling and recovery UK and in a show of community support they have been collecting and reusing items which are then distributed to families in need.

Hunts Cider, near Stoke Gabriel organised two ceilidhs to raise funds for Ukrainian Action, a charity which is sending conveys of trucks with humanitarian aid from the UK to Ukraine.

Distinguished Ukrainian pianist, Ivan Hovorun gave two spellbinding performances at St Mary’s Parish Church in Totnes.

These are just a few of the things that have been going on in the South Hams connected with the war in perhaps not so far away Ukraine.