A Ukrainian restaurant brings "hope" to locals in Neath
In the centre of Neath, Ruta Kitchen offers Ukrainian food and community cohesion.
Hello and welcome to The Valleys Lead.
You’ll surely have seen quite a lot of negativity about asylum seekers and refugees from both the media and politicians in recent months. Into this, we want to inject positivity, fact, and hope, all of which you’ll find in today’s story about a Ukrainian refugee in Neath who has opened a beloved Ukrainian restaurant in the south Wales valleys.
The story is below, but first, we just wanted to say thanks for joining us again this week. If you’re enjoying and/or finding these newsletters helpful and informative, we’d love you to keep joining us every week by subscribing (it’s free!). And if you want to receive our exclusive reporting in full, there is just a small yearly fee (more on that below).
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The Valleys Briefing
(A little round-up of some stories in brief from our valleys.)
A court has heard a mum was ignored after reporting being in pain and vomiting during the induced birth of her son who died at just four days old at the Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran in November 2024. An inquest has just opened into the child’s death, and thus far, it has been heard that the mother had been told she was “making a big fuss about nothing.” “If they [the midwives] had listened, instead of ignoring my requests for help, it’s possible Jac would still be alive today.”
In Caerphilly, new plans have been submitted to convert a house into a three-bedroom house in multiple occupancy (HMO). In past months, we’ve seen planning for HMOs around the valleys submitted and rejected following an outcry from surrounding residents. But as the amount of social housing doesn’t meet demand, the question remains: Where will people be housed if there is no where to house them?
Members of Reform UK warned of growing “chaos” as sources say the selections for the Senedd election have been “disastrous.” In the south Wales valleys, Andrew Barry, an Independent Merthyr Tydfil councillor was in the running to stand as a candidate in the Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr seat, but confirmed that he had pulled out after he was told that Jason O’Connell would be the number one candidate on Reform’s list for the constituency. O’Connell is a councillor in Torfaen, rather than a local in the constituency he will be representing.
A Ukrainian restaurant brings “hope” to locals in Neath
In 2023, Volodymyr Ivliev, fled his home in Kyiv to escape the war, joining his young family in Neath, Wales, who left Ukraine as soon as the Russian full-scale invasion of their country began in February 2022.
“I didn’t want to leave Ukraine,” he told The Valleys Lead. “But I needed to be closer to my family. And I really had no option. It was hard to move but my only other choice was to die in Ukraine.”
Working in international sales, Volodymyr already had a means of financially supporting himself and his family, but some his friends living in Wales hadn’t been able to find work.
“I had friends who wanted to work – they didn’t want to just stay on Universal Credit,” he said. “So, we decided to do something together.”
Even though he’d had no experience working in the restaurant business, Volodymyr knew how to cook “good Ukrainian food” and the friends decided they would open a Ukrainian restaurant in Neath.
“We wanted a Ukrainian menu – dumplings, borscht, and beet root – but we also wanted to create a place for the Ukrainian community,” he said.
With some upfront investment secured, Volodymyr opened Ruta Kitchen in January 2025.
“The name is simple, Ruta, which is a wildflower in Ukraine,” he said.
