Singer raising money to pay for aid to Ukraine

A Ukrainian singer-songwriter who came to the UK as a teenager is raising funds to help people affected by the war in her home country.

Yana Kozah was just 18 when she left Ukraine for Poland after the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Now living in Trowbridge in Wiltshire, she sings in a choir and performs solo in an effort to raise money for John's Red Bus, a UK charity delivering aid.

She told BBC Points West: "[In Ukraine,] people are without heating, no light. Sometimes you wish you could not read the news but then you remember these people are living it, they cannot turn it off."

Kozah said she moved to Poland with her parents and sister when Russian forces invaded.

She met her Trowbridge boyfriend online, and he helped her come to the UK two years ago.

"I joined a choir and we prepared a concert to raise funds for Ukrainian children," she said.

"It nicely lined up. We started singing together and since then we've been performing, we rehearse once a week in the old town hall in Trowbridge."

She said it was then a "natural transition" to sing her own songs on stage solo.

"The main reason I'm trying to do what I'm doing is to help my country in ways I can," she added.

The funds she raises at her concerts go to John's Red Bus, which brings aid to people in Ukraine. Her next concert is on 30 May in Trowbridge.

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