‘We can live in peace’: Ukrainian family transitions to new life in N.S.

A Ukrainian family living in Halifax say they're happy to finally have a safe place to live after fleeing conflict in their home country.

Mike and Anastasia Kashura are familiar with fleeing.

In 2014, the couple left their first home of Luhansk, Ukraine behind, when Russia first invaded Crimea, in the eastern part of the country. Anastasia was nine months pregnant with their first son, Sviatoslav.

“He’s a child of war. He was born in 2014, first of July,” Mike says.

The young family fled to Kyiv, where they had their second son, Matthew. Despite finding home in the capital city, they said they never truly felt safe.

“When the war started eight years ago, we saw how it was and we always thought that it could be in Kyiv — it could be everywhere in Ukraine. We couldn’t live with no worries. We always worried about something,” he says.

And their worries would come true. On Feb. 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into eastern Ukrainian cities, and just a few days later, Russia launched a full-scale assault on the country.

“Russia bombed every day for four months. It’s incredible, it’s terrible,” said Anastasia, who said she gets goosebumps just thinking about it.

“If you speak Ukrainian, if you know Ukrainian history, that’s why you are not Russian and they want to kill you.”