Sometimes the most memorable moments in life happen by accident.

When Nelly Kononova, 65, originally from Odessa, Ukraine, decided to take a day off from her job in Knook on the day that marked the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she thought she was just going to explore Salisbury like any other tourist.

That's until she met fellow Ukrainians and people from the Salisbury Community Hub for Ukraine in front of the I Want to Live sculpture.

Twenty minutes later, she joined her compatriots in singing the Ukrainian national anthem, and later lit a candle at Salisbury Cathedral.

Nelly said she was very touched by the day’s events, as she was trying to distract herself from the memories of exactly one year ago when her daughter, grandson and herself were awoken at 5am by loud explosions that could be heard from their 16th-floor flat in Odessa.

Nelly said: “We were sleeping and then we heard this boom. It was so terrible, and my daughter woke up and she said, ‘Mum, what is it? Is it just fireworks?’ I said, ‘No, it doesn’t sound like fireworks.’

"And then, after some interruption, again- boom. Like, not a thump, so it was an explosion somewhere, but we heard it in the city, in Odessa, at five o’clock in the morning. And then my grandson woke up, and he said ‘Granny, what is it?’ I said, ‘Okay, okay, don’t worry. It’s okay, don’t worry.’ And then it was for the third time so, with an interruption. So we knew- we expected something terrible to happen.”

Nelly said she has not slept in her own flat since that day, first staying at a friend’s house who had a basement before leaving Ukraine.

Her daughters and grandson left Ukraine ahead of her.

Nelly came to the UK in May after she and her partner found sponsors in Lincolnshire.

Since finding a job in Knook, she has tried to find sponsors in Wiltshire who have a place where she and her partner can live together again, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

Nelly said: “Great Britain is amazing. It’s amazing. I know, I know all the help, because now I am working with soldiers.

"I saw, they train them, they feed them, they gave them tool changes of military use, clothes, rucksacks and body armour.”