Ukrainian couple stuck in Poland hoping to come to Canada
Posted March 10, 2022 2:17 pm.
Last Updated March 11, 2022 4:02 pm.
Ukrainian couple Oleksandr Sukhar and Mariia Zakharova are torn between staying in Poland or fleeing Europe to come to Canada.
They took to social media, posting in the Facebook group “Host your Ukrainian refugees” to see if a Canadian would sponsor them, give them shelter and work. To their surprise, many responded and are willing to help.
“We are pleased that so many people answered and without knowing us really, they offer shelter, they even offer to buy plane tickets,” Sukhar said in Ukrainian via a translator.
The couple is in Wrocław, Poland and had plans to return home to Oleksandrivka – a village in the Mykolajiv Oblast region of Ukraine, about 375 kilometers south of Kyiv. But when the war began, they couldn’t go back.
(Credit: Oleksandr Sukhar and Mariia Zakharova / handout)
For now their village remains intact, but others near them are now under Russian control.
“The prevalent emotion is really fear: fear for our family members that are still there and second is not knowing how to get them out of this uncertainty,” says Zakharova.
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“The path to Poland is dangerous,” says Sukhar, “there are some cities and towns there that are in danger, that are bombarded.”
If their family can’t escape Ukraine for Poland, the couple will likely come to Canada – hoping for more opportunities to then assist those back home.
“There is a possibility that [our village] will be ruined and they will need support and money to kind of rebuild it,” says Zakharova. “We think that we can be more useful or more effective in Canada.”
Tetyana Tsomko is a Ukrainian-Montrealer who founded her own NGO called I’mmigrant, dedicated to people who live outside their native country in Canada.
“This country is seen as a paradise for many Ukrainians who have been willing to come here because of the security, because of the lifestyle and nature,” Tsomko says.
Some of her family are even making their way to Montreal from Ukraine: her sister-in-law and two children, along with some cousins.
“We’re very excited,” she says. “The Ukrainian community, we are really preparing.”
Sukhar and Zakharova are also preparing for a Plan B, with the goal to find a way back home.
“Our dream is that the war finishes as soon as possible and we would be able to go back to our village,” they say.
