Help my Ukrainian family who fled the war

My name is Andrew Kole. I am a Ukrainian Canadian living in Belleville.

 

The war in Ukraine has shattered our family circle, and we are humbly asking for your help to soften their horror at being transformed overnight from citizen to refugee in a foreign country.

 

The tears have only begun to flow. The realities are jarring. With their permission, here’s their story.

 

My cousin Natalia Druzhchenko and her 15-year-old son Anton Druzhchenko were the first to flee Dnipro on March 1 with nothing but the clothes on their backs and whatever they could stuff in a knapsack. Nothing else was allowed in the jam-packed rail cars. An intense family meeting the night before was decisive. Vlad, her husband, and Vanya, their other son, were locked in the country to fight as the result of a law prohibiting men between 20 and 60 from leaving. The bombs and armored assaults were already striking Ukraine.

 

They journeyed for two days to Poland, jammed into spaces crowded with strangers. There was only room to sit and stand alternately.

 

After ten days, they found refuge in a small German town where they were finally able to wash their clothes and dry their tears. They are living on neighborhood charity until their refugee status is formalized and they are able to access support services.

 

My 67-year-old aunt Irina Belogub held out for two more weeks before the sirens and explosions pushed her into the flood out of the country. With her daughter-in-law, Karina Belogub, granddaughter Vlada, 20, and grandson, Ygor Belogub, 7, they became part of the throng that landed in Switzerland and are likewise awaiting a formal identity. They are guests of a family friend until then.

 

My 44-year-old aunt, Tanya Marchenkova, is hoping to leave by the weekend, horrified at the prospect of leaving my uncle Dima behind for a place in a rush of people that grows more desperate daily. She’s not a traveler but has resolved her destination is Canada, somehow.

 

There is death in the air throughout Ukraine, but most of our family is thinking that by staying among the millions of homeless in Europe, they will be closer to their loved ones when peace finally comes.

 

This fund is intended to sustain them in human dignity while they have hope, provide whatever aid is possible for those trapped within reach of bullets and bombs in Ukraine, and also to establish a corridor to Canada if the continent reaches its limit and these family members become vulnerable in a deteriorating environment.

 

With your help, this fund will become a pipeline to feed resources that will soothe the terrors from the nightly menu of TV news about home.

 

We’ll keep you posted on developments!