Florist Mykola (aged 31) was harvesting flowers for International Women's Day last year when Russia invaded Ukraine. Months later he would be training to learn to "survive and be lethal" in a completely different and foreign landscape.

Mykola says, "This enemy has come to us and is trying to take everything I have away from me. That's why I am training here in the UK, so we can be victorious and I can go back to my life."

In the midst of learning how to operate an AK-47, rebel attacks in the woods and navigating the trench system; the 31-year-old recruit finds time to write love letters to his girlfriend who waits for him to survive the war so that they can marry.

Mykola will soon join other members of his family on the frontline, who've been fighting for months.

Mykola says, “I was very close to the frontline. We had rocket attacks, we had it all, this anxiety. There is no future, and there was no present in what I was doing either. So that's why I decided to respond to my country’s call to arms and join up now. Then, we can hopefully go back to our lives."