A Ukrainian family who arrived in West Malling last Friday after fleeing war have praised Britons for their kindness and generosity.

Just over a week ago Oksana and her daughter Yulia, 16, were in an overcrowded Polish hostel with hundreds of other refugees fleeing their war-torn country.

But now, thanks to the kindness of Reza Mirsadeghi, 56, and his wife Olga Vyoralova, 41, they have their own studio room space at the family’s home in London Road.

Oksana was forced to leave her husband and 22-year-old son behind in Kyiv to defend their country.

Property developer Reza explained the family picked up their new house guests from London Stansted airport on Friday looking traumatised from the whole ordeal.

Czech-born Olga, a piano teacher, is able to communicate partially with Oksana in Czech and says the stories of the war and leaving their family behind were “very sad”.

Despite the ordeal, Oksana and Yulia, who turned 16 last week, are opening up more with the family and have been overwhelmed by the kindness shown, including donations from West Malling Rotary Club and the Women’s Institute.

“The people in West Malling, Leybourne and the surrounding area have been incredible,” Father-of-four Reza said.

“Yulia has been doing online learning on her phone and a neighbour kindly brought a brand new laptop round for her. It’s unbelievable how nice people have been.

“They both seem to be more relaxed now. At first they seemed quite bewildered and guarded but they’ve opened up more recently and are speaking more now.

“The main thing they’ve said is how grateful they are for the UK’s reaction to helping the Ukraine.

“Even despite criticism of the scheme they are so happy with all the help they are getting, they keeping saying the UK is Ukraine’s number one friend.”

Reza and his wife Olga were similarly proud of the refugee rehoming scheme.

He said: “It is brilliant, without a doubt. I know it’s been criticised for being slow, but it is necessary to make sure proper Visa checks are done otherwise people will exploit the system.

“You’ll have economic migrants or trafficking happening rather than proper refugees coming in.”

The West Malling father explained he was compelled to help fleeing Ukrainians after his father died of a heart attack in a UN asylum centre in Tbilisi, Georgia, six years ago.

“He died from having to wait so long for the system to help,” he said.

“I’ve always had a lot of sympathy for refugees and I think this war has highlighted exactly what a refugee is.

“There’s been a lot of politics about what is and isn’t a refugee but this has made it clear.”

The family are currently waiting to home their second Ukrainian family - mum Victoria and her two sons Tymofii, 12, and Andrii, 10 - in one of their recently available rental problems, but there is a problem with the boys Visas.

Reza added: “Victoria has nowhere to go so she is just heading west with the two boys. We’ve contacted Tom Tugendhat and we’re trying to get them over as soon as possible.”

The family are also trying to help Oksana’s brother-in-law find a home in the county for his family-of-five.

Due to the size of the family they’ve struggled to find a home to cater for the all. If anyone is able to help, Reza is urging them to email him on rezamirsa@gmail.com.