A warm welcome for a return to an almost normal life. On Monday, 350 Ukrainians who fled the war arrived in Winnipeg, Canada, on a specially chartered flight from Warsaw, Poland. “We are all starting from scratch,” Anna Andiieko, a young Ukrainian from Chernihiv who came to Canada with her husband, their two-year-old son, her mother and her Chihuahua, told CBC. “All around the city there are sounds of bombs…every time you call, it’s really scary,” she continued, recounting the calls with her husband’s family, who stayed behind. Chernihiv. They were able to leave Ukraine before the war, so Yaroslav was not drafted into the army.
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Like their compatriots, they were welcomed by Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who visited Ukraine two weeks ago with Justin Trudeau and Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly. The three Canadian representatives had visited the ruins of Irpin, on the outskirts of kyiv, and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Our government is honored and Manitobans are honored to welcome their first charter flight from Ukraine, bringing these families who are looking for respite here,” said Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson, also at the airport, as an organization of Ukrainians who have lived in Canada for years, some of whom wore vyshyvankas, the flower-embroidered shirts that are traditional in Ukraine. Everything has been prepared for their arrival, specifies the Canadian media: housing, social security, a childcare system and psychological monitoring.
Since the beginning of the Russian offensive 3 months ago, more than 6.6 million Ukrainians have left the country to flee the fighting.