The war in Ukraine has now entered its tenth month. Since February 24, nearly 8 million Ukrainians have fled the country, with tens of thousands coming to the UK.

In one residential pocket of south-west London, two Ukrainian sisters have started making and selling traditional dumplings from home. Their aim is to promote understanding of their culture and raise awareness for aid donations.

The idea started over a dinner conversation shortly after Iryna Shokotko arrived in London in April to live with her sister Svitlana Coppola.

"We said 'why don't we just see how it goes and maybe there is demand, maybe we go on'," said Coppola. "London is such a cultural city. You have so many nationalities, so much amazing food to try so we thought, why not Ukrainian?"

The success of 'Smachno' - which means dumplings in Ukrainian - largely relies on orders through a local Facebook page and on Instagram. The sisters have been surprised by the popular response to their food and are now looking to expand their business to a more permanent set-up.

As we talk to the pair in Coppola's kitchen, Iryna's daughter, Maria, comes in. Aged seven, she and her mother fled their home in Dnipro in central Ukraine shortly after the conflict started. They spent a month in Warsaw before arriving in London.

Maria's father is still in Ukraine. Most of those who have left the country are women and children or older people, with many men required to stay behind to help in the war effort.

"Maria speaks to her father on the phone almost every day," an emotional Shokotko told CGTN Europe. "But she misses her home, her friends, her school and her gymnastics classes, everything she knew. She really wants to go home."

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The meat dumplings the sisters prepare for our visit are called Pelmeni. They're also a delicacy in Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe - a small sign of the complex cultural and linguistic ties binding many Ukrainians and Russians. Those ties have often transcended borders between the two states but are being strained like never before.

Serhii Shokotko knows the links all too well. He was forced to leave his home near Lysychansk in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, which has seen some of the fiercest bombardment and fighting.

"I stayed as long as I could," he recalls, as he speaks of his escape. "My neighbour and I were the only ones left in a street that had around a hundred houses.

"Eventually, I told her one day that it was time to go, or we would die."

The 71-year-old joined his daughters in London in July. His brother lives in Russia, on the other side of the border, near the city of Rostov-on-Don.

"My brother is sympathetic to Ukraine's suffering and understands what President Putin is doing. But his children view things differently and they support Putin's actions."

It's clear Serhii spends a lot of time thinking about the life he left behind, his pensive eyes often glaring in thought. I ask him if he hopes to return to Luhansk.

"I don't know if my house is still standing," he replies. "I have no way of communicating with anybody there as they've all been displaced. Everyone has gone."