Over a month after Russia launched its first missiles at Ukraine on Feb. 24, 40-year-old Olha Rudenko and her two children have begun to ease into their new life in Canada after fleeing from the western city of Lutsk.
While Rudenko and her sons, Lukian, nine, and Stanislav, 16, spent a month in Poland arranging their trip to Ottawa, her sister, Natalia Stepaniuk, was back in Ottawa preparing for her family to arrive. “There has to be recognition that these are not regular immigrants,” Stepaniuk, 36, told Global News. “These are people that are coming from the war zone that are traumatized.” Read more: Ukraine’s Zelenskyy committed to pressing for peace despite Russian attacks The Rudenkos arrived over the last weekend of March after a stranger from Montreal bought them plane tickets.
Stepaniuk, who moved to Canada ten years ago, met the stranger on a Facebook group dedicated to helping Ukrainians during the war. “I’m happy that my sister is safe in Ottawa with her kids,” Stepaniuk said. “I also feel very sad that they had to come under these circumstances.
There’s a lot of pain and a lot of anxiety as well.” Now that the family has reunited, the first priority will be to arrange school for Lukian and Stanislav as Rudenko tries to find work. “I don’t want my sister to feed us and I want to work,” she said. “I feel more comfortable here,” she added.