'I can't believe that we are safe,' says Ukrainian refugee beginning a new life in Manitoba
CBC
It's been a long journey from war-torn Ukraine to a quiet cottage community in western Manitoba but Hanna Palamarchuk and Mykola Prysiazhnyi have finally made it.
"We are extremely grateful to the community and extremely grateful to CBC for your report because that's how we knew about this opportunity for us," Palamarchuk, 31, said on Tuesday, hours after stepping off a plane in Winnipeg.
That opportunity includes a safe place to live and jobs, an offer put together by people in the cottage communities of Clear Lake and Onanole, Man., with financial support by Elkhorn Resort and the Municipality of Harrison Park.
"They emailed me directly after seeing the news show that you put on and they got their paperwork fairly quick. The first ones to arrive, they want to work right away, which is great for us," said Chris Phillips, manager of Elkhorn Resort.
The couple has experience in the hospitality industry. With their excellent English, they will work as servers in one of the restaurants and live in staff housing.
"It's been a pretty good experience," Phillips said of the process of bringing the couple to Canada. The resort is working with at least two other family groups who also want to move here after seeing the CBC story.
"It feels nice. When I hear from some of these people and what they're going through, it's pretty heartbreaking," Phillips said.
WATCH | Hanna Palamarchuk and Mykola Prysiazhnyi arrive in Manitoba
Palamarchuk and Prysiazhnyi's journey began in Kyiv on Feb. 24 when Russia invaded Ukraine.
"I heard the first, I'm not sure, was it a missile or was it the jet fighter at 5:00 a.m. in the morning? And then I heard the explosion not that far away. I woke her [Palamarchuk] up and we started searching for her for any news to see what is happening," Prysiazhnyi, 33, recalled.
After spending the next day in Kyiv metro stations, which were doubling as a bomb shelters, the couple decided to join others heading west to Poland.
"We hoped we will be back in maybe one or two weeks because we thought the negotiation will start and they will come to some kind of conclusion and we'll stop fighting," Prysiazhnyi said. "But it only escalated further and further."
Once at the Polish border, the couple was touched by the kindness of strangers.
One picked them up and took them to his family home until they could find another place to stay.
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