‘This was their home too’: Frankie Mills’s intimate portraits of Ukrainian refugees in the UK

Two years ago, when the first displaced Ukrainians arrived in the UK, the photographer followed a small group of women and children as they settled in rural Devon. She, and two of the women involved, tell us about the project

The remote village of Moorhaven, 15 miles east of Plymouth, is a place far removed from war. With open, barren moorland on one side and rolling countryside on the other, the surrounding landscape is scattered with wandering sheep and horses. So when a dozen Ukrainian refugees arrived there two years ago, Frankie Mills, a photojournalist at the local paper, found it hard not to pay attention. “It’s a small, tight-knit British community. The people that came were very visible.”

When Mills posted on a village Facebook forum asking to photograph some of the refugees, there was some resistance. “People thought it was really insensitive. They were very wary and sponsors saw it as their responsibility to protect their guests.”