Ukrainian grocery shop in Perth offers a taste of home
Refugees who set up a Ukrainian grocery shop in Perth are offering a welcome taste of home to compatriots displaced to Scotland.
Following the Russian invasion of their country, Alina Kotova and her family fled Ukraine and arrived in Scotland in September 2022.
Fifteen months after making Scotland their home, she and her husband Denys opened a shop selling all Ukrainian food and drinks on Perth's High Street and were this week granted a licence to sell alcohol by Perth and Kinross Council.
The shop sells all manner of Ukrainian delicacies from pork belly fat to sweets, salty cabbage to beetroot soup called borscht.
And now they can sell Ukrainian beers and wine too.
Alina said: "We decided to open a shop in Perth because it is a small city and there are a lot of people from Ukraine here. But it's not just Ukrainians who shope here. We get Latvians, Romanians... and Scots who just want to try a meal."
And it is perhaps no surprise that one Scot who likes to pop in is Perth and Kinross councillor Steven Carr. Steven has been visiting Ukraine for 20 years - since setting up the charity Dnipro Kids - and has a particular penchant for Ukrainian vareniki (dumplings) and smetana (sour cream).
Steven said: "I have been in a few times and bought some of the traditional Ukrainian dishes that I enjoy when I am in Ukraine.
"It is great that during such difficult times that Ukrainians have somewhere that they can go for those little reminders of home."
But their main passion is supporting a dog shelter back in Ukraine for pets who have been beaten, tortured and abandoned to die.
The Dom Khvostov Shelter offers help to dogs which have been injured both physically and psychologically by the war and trauma.
Anyone wanting to drop off pet food, medicine, bedding and pads can drop them off at Global Food and they will get taken to the shelter in Ukraine.
Denys said: "We need to help the dogs because they cannot help themselves. They deserve a chance."
On Wednesday, July 2 Perth and Kinross Licensing Board unanimously agreed to grant a premises licence subject to local conditions.
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