Ukrainian for beginners: Why these volunteers are learning the language

Ukrainian teacher Rissling is helping adult learners understand her country better at the adult education centre in Trier. Photo: Birgit Reichert/dpa

Language teacher Liliya Rissling writes some words in Ukrainian on the blackboard as her students wonder what Laskavo prosimo means.

It means "Welcome" – or "Tenderly we ask", if you translate it literally," says Rissling. She's giving the first session of a beginners' course in Ukrainian at an adult education centre in Trier, western Germany.