Lauren Corbishley, an NHS mental health nurse, has so far spent £1,000 on hotel bills for Yuliia Meshchierriakova, her partner Glib and her daughter, Maryna, 17, who fled Kharkiv when the war started . “I’m very grateful to him,” she said.

Sarah Ockelton, an NHS dietitian assistant whose sponsored Ukrainian refugee, Nataliya Nikolaienko, had to find herself homeless in Poland at the end of her free accommodation on Tuesday, said: “What a nice man. I’m in shock. This is fantastic news.”

Mr Chernyshov, from Yekaterinburg in the Urals, said he and his family took Ukrainian citizenship after Putin invaded Crimea in 2014. He had first come to Ukraine as part of a contract with Carlsberg in 2006.

He said the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in February, was “absolutely unprovoked” and irrational, adding; “It’s like a war between two cultures – brutal medieval versus modern, European democracy.

“And on the Ukrainian side, it is now a great patriotic war in which everyone is taking part. I have yet to see anyone over the age of 15 who is not taking part in the effort in one way or another. of war.”

Mr Chernyshov is helping five Ukrainian families connect with British sponsors in Edinburgh, where he still owns a home, as part of Homes For Ukraine. He was also closely involved in the transfer of 52 children from Dnipro orphanages to temporary homes in Scotland.

His son, Kirill, studied at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh before graduating from Cornell University. His eldest daughter, Kate, studied at Fettes College in Edinburgh.

He said he believed that while it was right to carry out security checks on host families, he believed that checks on refugee families and children could be carried out after arrival.

“Most of these families are in Poland in very difficult conditions and they are afraid,” he added. “It’s a standard bureaucratic problem when no one wants to take personal responsibility.”