A woman returned to her home in Ukraine - only for her house to catch fire after a Russian airstrike.

Brighton councillor Alistair McNair's mother-in-law Tamara Tsybenko went home to Kremenchuk in central Ukraine after staying with him and his wife for three months last year.

However, the 63-year-old has since faced repeated power cuts as well as a lack of mobile phone signal and no heating.

Cllr McNair revealed to The Argus that when his wife, Tetiana, visited her mother in November, her house caught fire due to a power surge caused by a Russian missile strike.

The McNairs went to Ukraine to bring Tamara to the UK just months after the war began. The family narrowly avoided a missile strike on a shopping centre that killed at least 20 people.

He vividly remembers the moment he learnt of the Russian invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago.

“I was reading the news in bed at around 6am when I first heard about the invasion,” Cllr McNair said.

“My wife and I had been expecting it - many Ukrainians had been predicting it for years, but it still came as a great shock.

“Since then, it has been all-consuming in our daily lives.”

Reflecting on the one-year anniversary of the start of the war, Cllr McNair, who lived in Ukraine for eight years, said he has mixed feelings.

“Ukraine and Ukrainians have so much to be proud of and hopeful for but, at the same time, the loss of life and utter destruction is hard to comprehend and will take many years to recover from, if that is ever really possible,” he said.

He said Brighton should be proud of its part in Ukraine’s struggle against Russian aggression and said residents have been “wholehearted in their support” for Ukrainians who have fled the war.

Cllr McNair said: “Without the support of residents, the council and the government, goodness knows what Ukrainians would do.

“It is hard enough fighting, but it must make it easier knowing your family are being looked after, and Brighton and Hove should be proud of its part in this immense struggle.

“We need to keep it up, as whatever we go through is nothing in comparison to Ukrainian hardship.”

He remains hopeful that Ukraine will eventually prevail but said that victory against Russia will take a long time.

Cllr McNair said: “This war has been the making of Ukraine and Ukrainians. The people have come together in this existential fight, which no one predicted, and there is no nation in the world prouder.

“Ukrainians have lost too much to give in and have a real sense of what freedom is.

“A year on, they are as determined and proud as ever - that will not diminish.”