More Ukrainians arriving in Moosomin
July 19, 2022, 4:58 pm
Kevin Weedmark
More Ukrainians are arriving in Moosomin and more are still on their way.
Roman and Julia Marynets arrived in Moosomin Tuesday. They are eager to start working and already have applications out.
A month before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the couple went to Estonia, where they were working at a storage compound.
After the invasion began, their parents told them not to come back to Ukraine—the village they are from is in Eastern Ukraine was under Russian occupation.
They went to Poland and stayed with friends. They made contact with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, and the UCC put them in contact with Moosomin’s Ukrainian community.
Roman is an experienced welder and is looking for work in the area.
It took three months for the couple to complete the paperwork to come to Canada, but they say it was a seamless process.
Roman says they are happy to be safe in Canada. “It’s just great, I can’t describe it, I can’t even believe it. We just arrived yesterday, it’s been 24 hours and I still can’t believe it. It feels like home, it’s so easy, it’s so similar, it feels like home.”
The couple found a home in Moosomin with the local housing authority, and it was furnished with furniture donated to the local Ukrainian community.
“Where we were living is now in an occupied territory, occupied by Russia right now. We’re from a small village near Kherson. The Russians have occupied the village. It’s pretty scary. You may not come home if you walk on the streets at night. The Russian soldiers are always drunk or on drugs and the people in the village are very scared. There are no rules. The Russians will just walk into any house and take whatever they want. If they decide to take a car, they take a car. There’s no normal understanding of how it’s supposed to be and no rules. Our parents are pretty scared right now. Rules don’t exist for the Russian soldiers. Everything is being stolen. There are no police, no doctors. Everything is just chaos.”
The couple plan to be in Canada for the long term.
“Ukraine is our home, our parents are there, and we want to visit them in the future, but our future is here and we want to build our life here.”
