UA Refugee LA

Hello. I'm Petro Kovalchuk. Me and my family are refugees from Ukraine. We went away from our native town on the 1 of March after three night underground. It was very hard for our big family (5adults and 8 children) to sit in the cellar all the night. So we went a long way to more safe places. Our way was very hard in Ukraine because there were many defensive checkpoints near every town and village. Our children were very tired and hungry, they didnt want to sit quiet and also it was very hard to find gasoline during our trip across Ukraine. Sometimes we heard a noise from explosions and outbrakes. We were very afraid of this so the main dreams we wanted was to go to the border between Ukraine and Romania more quickly. When we arrived to the border we didnt sleep for maybe 24 hours. I dont want to introduce about border crossing but i want to say that Romanian border guards were very kind. Then we went to sleep in simple but nice hotel in the forest and it was the first quiet night during the last week. Then in the morning we decided to go to the Czech republic| to Prague. It was a long way but not so mentally hard like cross Ukraine. When we went to Prague a part of my family wanted this to be a final destination. But the next day we understood that it will be hard to stay in Prague because of a big amount of ukrainian refugees here and absence of free living places. As we were very tired and didnt have energy to think we stayed there for a week. But i was looking for a better chance and i decided to go to the USA across Mexico. 11.03 our trip from Europe to USA had begun. 4.00 12.03 we arrived to MexicoCity. Then after 18 hour of waiting for a cheaper airplane we depatured to Tijuana. Our city walk in Tijuana was like Hollywood film, but I don't want to introduce a lot because every American knows what i felt. Near the US|Mexico border, i felt that freedom and new life would come soon. It was exciting moment that is why i prayed a lot. God helped us and we crossed the border during one day. Thank you to everybody who helped us! When we got to USA, we were waiting for the rest of us and went to sunny place San Diego! It was our own victory because nobody trusted us, even our family. San Diego is a beautiful and modern city with very kind citizens. Everybody tried to help us. So the next day, one of our three families decided to live in San Diego. The next day my family went to Los Angeles, the city of dreams. Now I m here, and I want to be here forever. I want to find a job, a school for my children and to become happy, to begin a new life far from the war. And also, I dream to STOP the war in Ukraine. We trust in you, Ukrainians trust in the USA. My family on TV

 

My family consist of 13 people: 5 adults and 8 children:

Petro Kovalchuk 33 male

Olha Kovalchuk 33 female

Bohdana Kovalchuk 7 girl

Mykola Kovalchuk 6 boy

Ivan Kovalchuk 4 boy

 

Mykola Kovalchuk 61 male

Antonina Kovalchuk 39 female

Illia Malarchuk 14 boy

Yaryna Kovalchuk 7 girl

 

Olha Kovalchuk 37 female

Maksym Kovalchuk 15 boy

Ruslan Kovalchuk 6 boy

Anna Kovalchuk 4 girl