How many of us in the UK would offer our homes up to a Ukrainian family?

Our hearts say yes, but the reality is daunting and exhausting, writes Jenny Eclair

How can we go about our normal routines? (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Call me naive, but I genuinely didn’t believe this could happen. Obviously, I knew there were ugly rumblings over Russia and the Ukraine, but I never thought that one man could inflict so much pain and chaos – while the rest of the world stood by and watched.

“Surely someone will kill him,” sprang to mind, which is what a lot of people have been saying, but is ultimately a bad idea. Still, I can’t help myself wondering, sometimes: “Why can’t someone simply assassinate Putin? Someone close, who pretends to be on his side and then betrays him and saves the world?”

In a film this would happen, and the assassin in question could be played by Voldymyr Zelensky, the heroic Ukranian leader who – already, in his own lifetime – has won Ukraine’s Strictly Come Dancing and been the voice of the Ukrainian Paddington Bear. Beat that, Boris.