Quebec man reunites with Ukrainian wife after being separated for months
Posted September 9, 2022 2:00 pm.
Last Updated September 9, 2022 6:42 pm.
Quebecer Sylvain Nelson and his Ukainian wife Viktoriia Kolesnyk are looking forward to living a more normal life together.
They were married in Ukraine in January, and when Sylvain came back to Drummondville Quebec,110 kilometres southeast of Montreal, the Russian invasion began, leaving his future with Viktoriia uncertain.
After being separated for almost eight months and a long road to get Viktoriia to Canada, the two have now been reunited in Montreal.
Credit: Sylvain Nelson/handout
“It’s just the beginning of a new life, it is a small victory for us,” said Kolesnyk. “Finally we are together, finally we are happy, finally this day came.”
Nelson says he began having doubts they would be able to reunite.
“When finally touched her physically for the first time, a sigh of relief,” he said.
Symbolism came with Viktoriia’s arrival, exactly six months to the day that Russia invaded Ukraine.
“The war started in February and finally she landed the 24th of August,” Nelson said. “It [was] a very special day. It [was] also the National day of Ukraine.”
Viktoriia was keeping safe after the invasion, hiding in a shelter in Nyzhin, a town northeast of the capital Kyiv.
“Some days she couldn’t answer me when the in bomb shelter and when the siren went off,” Nelson said.
She was able to flee to Poland with her 13-year-old son Vlad.
READ MORE:
‘I was afraid’: Quebec man recounts wife’s harrowing escape from Ukraine through Poland
“I left Ukraine with fear, with the pain in my heart,” Kolesnyk said. “It still remains because many of my friends and relatives stayed there.”
The immigration process was far from easy, with many bureaucratic hurdles.
“After many, many things to do, many long processes, many calls, time to wait. Many times of stress. Now it’s all finished,” Nelson said. “Now it’s the time to share this moment together.”
Kolesnyk says she wants to start a new life. The couple now has modest plans for the future.
“She will begin to to work and will build her new life,” Nelson said. “I think we want more quiet and boring lives.”
