A Ukrainian teenager has achieved four A grades at A-level in Britain and has been offered a place at a prestigious university while his father fights against Russian forces on the front line.
Zorian Tytych, 18, from Kyiv, said he cannot bear to think too much about his father because he would worry too much.
The teenager studied for his GCSEs and A-levels at Cardiff Sixth Form College in Wales, while his family remained in the war-torn country.
His father signed up to the Ukrainian military the day after Vladimir Putin’s army invaded the country on 24 February, and is now on the Belarus border.
His cousin is also fighting, and his uncle is signing up.
Mr Tytych’s mother was forced to flee Kyiv to Lviv in western Ukraine for a month.
But despite fearing for his family, he earned top grades in physics, maths, biology and chemistry and will read biological sciences at Durham University.
Mr Tytych has also found time to do voluntary translation for families in Cardiff who have taken in Ukrainian refugees.
“Before the war started, my mother and father were lawyers,” he said.
“Dad was on the Ukrainian committee for judicial reform, taking things up to European Union level.
“He joined the military the day after the war started, signing up to the territorial defence and receiving basic training.
“He did this because he wanted to protect his home and support his country.
“As the war has progressed, he has moved on. He has been assigned to the military and is now seeing active service on the front line.”
Mr Tytych said his father was on the Belarus border where he looks at routes, surveillance and communication and connecting regiments and their communities.
“My cousin is doing the same and is now based near Kherson, where he is right in the thick of it and all the shelling,” he said.
“My uncle is currently in the recruitment process for joining the army.”
He added: “I cannot think too deeply about my father as it would drive me mad with worry, but I am very proud of him.
“I know he would feel it was a disgrace if he didn’t join the army.
“But I cannot think about it too much as it just makes me really concerned.”
Over the summer, Mr Tytych joined a British army training programme to become a translator.
“Britain now has 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers receiving training from the British army here in the UK and they need translators and helpers,” he said.
Cardiff Sixth Form College principal Gareth Collier said: “We have received glowing reports from the host family who described him ‘as an example of an outstanding, selfless individual willing to help others where he can’.
“He has been an active member of the school community, and we are delighted that he is able to continue his education here in the UK with these tremendous results.”
A-level results across the UK have dropped from last year but are still higher than the last time pupils took exams.
A near-record number were accepted into their preferred or second-choice university.
The overall pass rate fell to 98.4 per cent from 99.5 per cent last year, when grades were awarded by teachers.
In 2019, the proportion of entries awared A* to E grades was 97.6 per cent.
