A Ukrainian mother who lives in a small hostel room with her son in the Vale of Glamorgan has opened up on the stress and frustration of delays to being moved into new accommodation.

Kateryna Gorodnycha, who fled her home in Kyiv with her son in 2022 because of the war in their country, has been waiting for months for news on when the new emergency accommodation site at Llantwit Major will be completed.

The site, where Eagleswell Primary School used to be, will be home to 90 temporary modular units for Ukrainian refugees.

Vale of Glamorgan Council said they would start moving people into the site at the end of the summer, but families like Kateryna and her 15-year-old son, Timur, are still waiting.

“It is a really frustrating situation,” said Kateryna.

She was recently told that they would be able to move into their new accommodation in Llantwit Major in about two weeks.

However, she also said she was given different completion dates over the past year. The council has now confirmed that it expects the site to be ready sometime in the next couple of weeks and that delays happened because one of the companies providing the modular units collapsed.

Kateryna said: “I lived with sponsors for more than two years and if we [had moved] in in time, the first date we were promised was March 2024.

“If we had moved there in March it would be just two years with sponsors and it would be perfect for everybody.

“Our sponsors, we are so grateful for them because they waited and waited and they didn’t ask us to leave them, but the circumstances [became] worse and we had to move this summer in July.”

Kateryna said the opening date for the Eagleswell site continued to move, going from June to August and then from August to September.

She and Timur have since been living in a hostel in Barry provided by Vale of Glamorgan Council for families fleeing the war in Ukraine.

“It is a whole life actually in a small storage room,” said Kateryna when describing her living situation.

“We have just one room. Not one bedroom, one room. Literally.

“We can’t move here. My son is in school, in Cowbridge School… that’s why we couldn’t move further from this area and he even has no table to study [on].”

The space does also include a bathroom.

Russian missiles were fired on Kateryna’s hometown the day she left with her son and two cats, travelling 1,800 miles by car through Poland and Germany before reaching Calais and going onwards to the UK.

Kateryna said she has opted to stay near Cowbridge because it is her son’s last year in secondary school and finding rented accommodation has been difficult because of the cats.

She added: “They are a part of our family, so it is too hard to rent accommodation being a refugee and having pets.

“It is too much for landlords.”

In their small hostel room, Kateryna and Timur have a fridge as well as a microwave and chest of drawers which they brought themselves.

Kateryna also said the stress of waiting has had a big impact on her mental health.

Before finding out that they should be moving in about two weeks, she said: “It probably wouldn’t be an issue if we would stay here for a month, for one month, but staying here longer and having to deliver my son to school every day, it effects me.”

The temporary accommodation site in Llantwit Major was allowed to go ahead initially through special planning powers known as permitted development rights.

Vale of Glamorgan Council eventually secured planning permission to keep the site in place for a minimum of five more years in July 2024.

However, some residents were unhappy about the way the plans were initially given the go ahead without needing planning permission, with many complaining that the accommodation units are just metres away from their gardens.

Some residents are able to see into the gardens of the temporary units from upstairs windows.

Kateryna said she has not seen what the units look like inside, but added: “We have been through a lot in the last two or three years so it is not really important how nice it is, but it is a place to live.

“A separate place and you could make some plans.

“The most terrifying thing is not be able to make plans.”

A Vale of Glamorgan Council spokesperson said: “The delay in moving people in has mainly been caused by one of the companies that provide the modular homes becoming insolvent.

“However, it is anticipated that the site will be ready for use in the next couple of weeks.

“Tenants accessing Council-owned temporary accommodation are charged a flat rate of £174.27 a month plus a £40.72 service charge to cover utilities and other costs, so £214.99 in total.

“The amount paid by tenants is based on their individual circumstances and some will receive financial support towards rent.

“All residents rehoused by the Council in permanent or temporary accommodation receive money advice including an affordability assessment.

“This ensures that the accommodation is appropriate for a person’s means, with alternative housing offered if it is not.”