The worst fears of the Ukrainian community in Quebec have unfortunately become a reality, while the safety of their loved ones who still live in Ukraine is greatly threatened, since the large-scale invasion of Russia.
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Invasion which took the community by surprise on Wednesday evening, whereas a few hours earlier, it expected a targeted operation further east of the country.
“We haven’t slept all night,” drops Irina Spirina, who immigrated to Quebec 12 years ago. She lives in Lévis with her husband and three children, but all the rest of her family lives in the Ukraine.
“They are not safe,” worries Ms. Spirina.
“Today I was in contact with my mother. She got woken up [très tôt le matin] by explosions. She didn’t understand where it came from. It was continuous for an hour. She panicked,” she continues.
His relatives face bare shelves in supermarkets and endless queues at ATMs.
“For the moment, they are keeping their calm, but everything is very worrying,” she reports.
Missiles overhead
Dariy Khrystyuk immigrated to Quebec 12 years ago and also lives in Lévis. Several members still living in Ukraine were taken aback by the onslaught of Russian forces.
“When the shelling started, it really took us by surprise,” he explains. Besides, we woke up several of them, because they were not aware of what was going on,” he explains.
He said his cousin – who lives in central Ukraine – believed it would only be the east of the country that would be affected, in a conversation on Wednesday.
“A sleep later, he woke up with missiles over his head,” Mr. Khrystyuk drops
He and his family are trying as best they can to help their loved ones. While the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, has indicated that he will do his part to welcome refugees, Mr. Khrystyuk mentioned the possibility of obtaining refugee status for them.
“But they don’t want to leave right now,” he says.
upset
Nataliia Roman was “overwhelmed” when Le Journal reached her at her home in Montreal on Thursday morning.
The intensity of the assault by Russian forces on Ukrainian territory took the population by surprise, she said.
Riveted to her television, this Ukrainian who arrived in Quebec a dozen years ago was in constant contact with her parents, who live in Chernobyl, where the Russian army took control of the nuclear power plant.
“We are trying by all means to get them out of there. We are trying to see if they can take a train to go to Poland, where we also have family, ”she says.
Ms. Roman was in the process of taking steps to bring her parents to Montreal in the next few days, since they hold a visitor’s visa.
“But we didn’t expect that, not so quickly,” she drops.
The sirens sounded very early in his hometown on Wednesday morning. His mother, who takes care of a school for hearing-impaired children where they are boarders, had to help the children to take refuge in the basement of the building, concludes Ms. Roman.
With the collaboration of Daphnée Dions-Viens