Has anyone who upped and left got any advice or any regrets?
I'm from New Zealand, not the UK, and in fact have somehow never been there despite 3/4 of my ancestors coming from the UK in the late 19th century (my maternal grandfather had a Danish mother and Swedish father).
I've worked for a company in Russia for over four years, including three years living there. I was the only foreigner in the company, but everyone had good written English, and 90%+ were good with conversations too. I only needed Russian language for shops and supermarkets (mostly for reading product labels, only a couple of phrases at checkout e.g. recognising "Do you need a bag?" and answering appropriately) and McD etc (same ... "For here or to go?"), taxis, restaurants, signs on the street and in the metro (entry, exit, transfer ...). Perhaps more importantly, they *like* English-speaking people (even if their government doesn't).
Ukraine is similar, in fact even easier for English-speaking people, something close to my experiences in Sweden maybe, but not quite Denmark. Much easier than Germany or Austria or Switzerland or .. eek .. France And Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv are not Moscow, but they're all amazing very pleasant and advanced cities.
Or were, before the current unfortunate situation.
Once the war is over, Ukraine (almost anywhere) will very quickly be a great place to be. And Moscow and St Petersburg too.
They will both (sadly...) have a big shortage of men. And not only in terms of skilled workers, if you know what I mean.
In terms of lifestyle, New Zealand and Australia are both great. The thing about NZ is ... it really would be a lot better if you can bring your work with you. Remote work for US or European companies (as I'm doing now) is a lot easier to arrange now than it was before COVID, and a California salary while living in uncrowded, quiet New Zealand is the best of both worlds.
I hated living in California (SFBA). It's just awful. There are beautiful places but the traffic is awful, the car pakrs are all full, and the trails and beaches etc crowded as hell. The medical system and insurance is a nightmare, and anything to do with cars (DMV, insurance, ...) is almost as bad. The only thing I really liked there was the after work public lectures by famous guests at places like Google and Facebook and Stanford, and being able to drop in to just the conference sessions you were interested in at Moscone or San Jose Convention Center etc rather than having to get international flights and hotels and dedicate a whole week.