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Ukrainian Family Denied UK Asylum Told Child Should “Wear Headphones” to Block Out War
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A Ukrainian family denied asylum in the United Kingdom was advised by British authorities that their daughter could use noise-cancelling headphones to cope with panic attacks triggered by air raid sirens and explosions, according to reporting by Sky News on February 26.
The case is one of several highlighted by Sky News involving Ukrainian families whose asylum claims were rejected because parts of Ukraine are considered “safe” despite the ongoing Russian war entering its fifth year.
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Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, about 310,000 Ukrainians have entered the UK through special visa programs, including the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme. While those programs have been extended—most recently allowing stays until September 2028—they do not provide a direct path to permanent settlement.
As Sky News reports, many Ukrainians who have lived in Britain for years are now seeking long-term residency through asylum or other visa routes, arguing that returning home could put their lives at risk.
According to UNICEF, more than a third of all children in Ukraine – a total of 2,589,900 – are currently displaced. Of these, more than 791,000 are internally displaced, and 1,798,900 are living as refugees outside Ukraine.
— Jürgen Nauditt 🇩🇪🇺🇦 (@jurgen_nauditt) February 17, 2026
Almost 2.6 million Ukrainian children – more than a… pic.twitter.com/7Gr1tdqqxG
“No part of Ukraine is safe”
Several families told Sky News their applications were rejected with instructions to relocate within Ukraine, including to western regions or even Kyiv—areas that continue to face missile and drone attacks.
UK Home Office guidance currently relies on assessments dating back to January 2025, stating that humanitarian conditions in Ukraine do not automatically meet the threshold for asylum protection.
But families point to a statement from the UN Refugee Agency warning that a deadly Russian strike on the western city of Ternopil demonstrated that “no part of the country should be considered safe.”
Immigration lawyers told Sky News that approval rates for Ukrainian asylum claims have sharply declined since April 2025, whereas most applications had previously been granted.
“Try noise-cancelling headphones”
One rejection letter reviewed by Sky News addressed a teenage girl suffering panic attacks after fleeing Kyiv early in the war.
“As we will be relocating you to a non-conflict zone, it [her panic attacks] does not reach the threshold,” The Home Office wrote.
Officials added that “you could look into noise-cancelling headphones and soundproofing rooms to help with your daughter’s panic attack symptoms.”
The girl’s mother, speaking anonymously while appealing the decision, described leaving Ukraine on the second day of the invasion with her five children after what she called a dangerous journey that separated the family from relatives who remained behind.
“My daughter started having panic attacks because of it,” she told Sky News. “Doctors in the UK have been helping her, and she hadn’t had one for a while.”
But after learning she might be forced to return, the attacks resumed.
“Since they told her she should go back to Ukraine and just wear noise-cancelling headphones, she’s started having panic attacks again,” the mother said.
Questions over “safe” regions
The family was advised they could relocate to cities including Chernivtsi, Ternopil, or Rivne—locations British authorities described as safer regions.
The mother said she struggled to understand the designation, noting that Ternopil had recently been hit by a Russian strike that killed dozens of civilians.
“When they told me I could just go back to western Ukraine because it’s not a conflict zone, I have never felt so tiny before,” she said.
“The Foreign Office travel advice says [against] all but essential travel to western Ukraine — why are my children less precious than British people?”
“You can be sure if you stay in Lviv, for example, you can be shot, and you will die,” she added. “So I don’t understand how I can relocate there.”
The UK Home Office told Sky News that Ukrainian visa schemes remain open and have been extended, but individual asylum decisions are assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Earlier, Polish President Karol Nawrocki signed a new law that changes how the country provides aid to people fleeing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The document moves all existing support tools into the general Law on the Protection of Foreigners, effectively ending the separate legal framework that had been in place since 2022.
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