Russians living in the UK have said they are “horrified” and “appalled” by President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Many have joined anti-war protests across the country, while Britain-based Russian cultural institutions have also condemned the conflict.

Dr Uliana Bashtanova, a senior postdoctoral researcher in chemistry at Cambridge University, told the PA news agency that she was “ashamed” for her country.

She said: “(The war) should be stopped immediately.”

The 52-year-old has been going to demonstrations, has sent food parcels to refugees at the Ukrainian-Polish border and donated money to support young children in Kharkiv.

She said none of the Russian expats in her circle back Mr Putin’s assault on Ukraine.

Her colleagues at a Cambridge Russian amateur theatre, where Dr Bashtanova is a director, come from all parts of the Russian-speaking community and are “all absolutely appalled”, she said.

Dr Bashtanova left Moscow for the UK 22 years ago, a move partly driven by concerns over the rise of a former KGB officer to political power.

Those fears have come true, she said, as “everything which is happening now is how Putin was taught about the world as a KGB officer”.

She does not believe Russians back home would support the invasion if they were properly informed.

She said: “It’s really difficult for the Russian people to organise themselves against the war and there is lots of propaganda going on through TV, and most opposition radio stations are blocked, so it is really difficult for them to get any information.

“I don’t think that Russian society, if they were given proper information, are for the war, definitely not.”

She said many do not know about the high number of casualties and any protest action is “brutally suppressed”.

This was echoed by Larissa Fradkin, 73, professor emeritus at London Southbank University, who said many Russians are “flooded with disinformation”.

She told PA: “It is absolutely unbelievable the level of propaganda that people have been exposed to.”

She said most Russians she is in touch with are, like her, “absolutely horrified” by the war.

“I think it’s the end of the Putin regime, but how long it will take, nobody knows.

“I’m afraid that Russia will suffer greatly and we will suffer with it for many years”.

She has heard about many compatriots who are against the war but do not voice their views for fear of being imprisoned.

Prof Fradkin said she herself is worried about expressing her opinion “because as you well know they are quite capable of killing people on UK soil”, but that “somebody has to speak up”.

She said she also knows some people, including highly-educated Russians in the UK, who back Putin’s invasion, a fact she called “heart-breaking”.

Prof Fradkin has lived in the UK for nearly 40 years. Born in the Baltic Sea area of Russia, she left the country as a stateless political refugee in 1973.

She has a close connection to Ukraine, as her 74-year-old aunt lives in Kyiv and they speak on the phone every night.

“When we speak I can hear explosions,” the professor said.

Both Dr Bashtanova and Prof Fradkin said they have not personally felt a shift in attitudes towards Russians in the UK yet, but expect that to change.

Prof Fradkin said: “I hear stories of Russian children at school suffer because other children shout at them: ‘You’re Russian, are you going to bomb me?’.”

Pushkin House, an independent Russian cultural organisation based in London, has also openly denounced the Russian president’s actions.

Its director Elena Sudakova told PA: “We feel that it is important to distinguish between what Putin wants and what the Russian people and Russian organisations want.

“And unfortunately, the two are currently seen as synonymous in the West and in the world, but they’re not.

“We realise how lucky we are to have a free voice that we hope will allow us to relay the anti-war sentiments of other cultural institutions, artists and voices, which are currently repressed and censored across Russia.”

She emphasised there is “no generic Russian community” in the UK, but many Russian-speakers with diverse cultural influences, opinions and backgrounds, some of whom have family and friends in Ukraine.

Ms Sudakova, who has lived in Ukraine, said: “It is really a dark moment for us.

“But of course, the stigma that we’re experiencing is that being a Russian speaker makes people immediately draw certain conclusions about your background and political views.

“But as I said, we all come from such diverse range of backgrounds and opinions and being a Russian doesn’t equate to supporting Putin’s war.”

There are growing calls to boycott Russian culture, but Pushkin House is “very much against” this, Ms Sudakova said.

She noted that while culture often comes under attack first when there are military conflicts, it is the first corridor that reopens when there is de-escalation.

“Cultural dialogue is our last hope for diplomacy,” Ms Sudakova said.

Pushkin House is rethinking its programme to support Ukraine, providing a platform for Ukrainian creatives, artists and filmmakers, and publishing anti-war manifestos by Russian opinion leaders, she said.