Manitoba-bound mothers fleeing Ukraine with children are terrified, exhausted – but put on a brave face
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Ilona Protynyak, and her children, Demian (five) and Milena (four), walking through the old town in Warsaw. They have been going for long walks to keep the kids occupied while waiting for the Canadian visa paperwork to come through.
Posted: 7:00 PM Apr. 6, 2022
WARSAW — On the long bus ride out of Ukraine, Nataliia Cherevko’s son, 11-year-old Bohdan, stopped eating. His stomach hurt. Behind them on the bus was another mother, with two sons, and one of them couldn’t eat, either. It was the stress, their mothers thought. It was being a child, and leaving everything they knew behind them.
As the bus rolled west from the heart of the country, Cherevko worried about her son. She worried as the bus came to a stop for a night somewhere near Cherkasy, after hearing that there might be danger ahead. She didn’t know where exactly it was; road signs had been taken down by Ukrainian forces, in an attempt to disorient Russian soldiers.
Ukrainian refugee on her way to new life in Winnipeg
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Ukrainian refugee Tetiana Maksymtsiv first learned about Winnipeg through a friend who had moved to the city about six years ago. In a few days, she will be flying to Winnipeg to settle in Canada.
Posted: 7:00 PM Apr. 4, 2022
WARSAW — It’s a bitterly cold morning in Poland’s capital, at the heart of the city’s diplomatic row. Outside the concrete-and-glass edifice of the Canadian embassy, about four dozen people are waiting, mostly women with children in tow.
