Ukrainian refugee making TikToks about UK life says mentality is ‘so different’ and was shocked by tea and pub culture

A Ukrainian refugee who fled to the UK alone and unable to speak English after explosions shook her apartment has swapped Kharkiv for Margate, where she now makes TikTok videos about British life including tea drinking, pub culture and social etiquette.

Iryna Hordiienko, 25, fled her hometown of Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine in February 2022, a few weeks after Russian forces started bombing the city.

To escape, Iryna jumped in a friend’s car with six other people and a cat, and headed for the Polish border, a week-long journey due to the many road blocks.

After crossing the border, Iryna applied for the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme before moving to Ramsgate in Kent in April 2022.

Arriving in the seaside town without her family, as Iryna left home as a teenager and no longer speaks to her mum, she soon began working three jobs while learning English.

Six months later she moved to nearby Margate, where she now lives in a one bedroom apartment and works as a social media content creator for a local company called CommunityAd.

In her spare time however Iryna began posting videos on her TikTok channel @irisssskai about her experience in the UK and how it compares to her previous life in Ukraine.

The videos, which include titles like “What things I thought were the norm in Ukraine but are a luxury in the UK”, highlight differences between the two countries with captions and Iryna holding a variety of props such as Harry Potter souvenirs and a giant packet of Typhoo teabags.

Her channel has amassed 24,000 followers and hundreds of thousands of likes – which she hopes will help her pursue a career in digital marketing and modelling.

Brits’ willingness to say “good morning” to strangers, pub culture and a love of tea drinking are just some of the cultural differences which Iryna has found strange adapting to in Kent, but the fish and chips in the seaside town have grown on her and it now feels like home.

“I don’t think Russia is going to stop and Ukraine is not going to stop either,” Iryna told PA Real Life.

“When I got here, I was a little depressed because I didn’t have a job and I wanted to work – now it feels like home.

“I really appreciate being here in the UK and thank you for your hospitality and welcome.

“The UK mentality, it’s so different.”

When Russia invaded her country in February 2022, Iryna was living in Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, where she worked as a photo editor.

She remembers seeing reports on the messaging app Telegram warning people that “Russia was coming”.

“We never imagined that Russia could attack Kharkiv,” said Iryna.

“All of my friends were saying Iryna why are you worried? Nothing will happen.”

On 23 February 2022, Iryna was suddenly shaken awake by the sound of explosions and would later learn that her school and university had been reduced to rubble.

“I woke up at 5am because of the noise…it was ‘boom, boom’,” she said.

“I was so scared, I was crying.

“It’s a horrible feeling and for the next two weeks my house was shaking.”

During this time, the situation deteriorated quickly and Iryna began to see more and more people leaving city.

The tap water where she lived was not drinkable but shops were fast running out of supplies.

“You had to wait in the queue for hours… then when you got inside there was no food or water, just the most expensive items like ice cream,” she said.

“We didn’t have any water so we started getting it from a well.”

When one of Iryna’s friends offered to give her a lift to the Polish border, she jumped at the opportunity.

“We were six people, one was a child, and there was a cat,” she said.

“It took us seven days to get to the border because of the check points.”

Iryna, who no longer has contact with her family, applied for a visa to travel to the UK which she said took several weeks to process.

She arrived on British soil on April 25, 2022 and moved to Ramsgate.

“I was very happy, but I didn’t speak English at all and had to learn by working,” she said.

Iryna started working three jobs, helping edit photographs in the morning, waitressing at a bakery during the day, and housekeeping and administration work for a hotel in the evenings.

But her real passion has always been creating digital content, and so she began posting videos on TikTok about her new life in the UK which have received over 430,000 likes.

In one video Iryna uses captions to describe how life in the UK “is a fairy tale” compared with Ukraine – sharing a montage of places she’s been with captions explaining why including “Normal minimum wage” and “Friendly people who are happy to help if you are in trouble”.

The TikTok post adds: “In Ukraine I couldn’t afford anything, but working in the UK I have time to do sports, travel and try something new.”

Another clip sees her explain she has “never dated an English guy or girl” in her time in the UK and she struggles to build close friendships with Brits because their mentalities are “too different” but she does not miss her previous life and “appreciates every second” of being in the UK.

A further video titled “It will soon be nearly 2 years since I’ve lived in the UK”, Iryna can be seen smiling with the caption: “I have worked as a dishwasher, cleaner, photo editor, waitress, receptionist, builder, painter, babysitter, content creator”.

It adds: “Thanks to the friendly people un the UK, I changed mentally and felt happy for the first time”.

One of the main differences between the two countries is the mentality, explained Iryna.

“In Ukraine, nobody says ‘Hello, how are you?’ or ‘Good morning’ to a stranger,” she said.

“You don’t say hello to the cashier or the bus driver, and you don’t say thank you.”

She was also shocked by how much people in the UK like to “chat” and said Ukrainians are usually “busy” and don’t make time for small talk.

At work Iryna was shocked by the number of cups of tea her colleagues were drinking a day.

“I drink mostly water, not even coffee,” she said.

“At work, people drink tea all day, they finish one cup and then fill it up again.

“It’s a very cultural thing…I like it.”

Pub culture is another aspect of British life that Iryna was not accustomed to and in particular seeing families with children enjoying a drink.

“Here people can go to the pub almost every day, whereas in Ukraine that means you are an alcoholic” she said.

“Also if you got to the pub with kids, that’s not OK in Ukraine.”

At first Iryna was not very impressed with some of the UK’s signature dishes, like fish and chips, but she has now developed a taste for it.

“I didn’t understand why people like (fish and chips),” she said.

“For me it’s too much oil and bread crumbs, I can’t really taste the fish.

“But recently I tried a nice fish and chips…and I like it!

“I also like scotch eggs, cauliflower cheese, toad in a whole, Yorkshire pudding, pigs and blankets, and chestnut stuffing.”

Iryna started a new job on August 1, 2023 in Margate as a content creator for social media and hopes her creative skills will help her pursue a career in social media and modelling.

“I have my previous life and I have my life in the UK,” she said.

“I like Ukraine but my life was really, really hard there.

“Right now I feel comfortable and I feel happy.”

Watch Iryna’s videos on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@irisssskai