By Phil Melnychuk
It took just about a day to shatter a normal family’s life in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 24.
Tatyana Kolesnikova thought the first loud noise was a bang from a car crash on the road near her apartment building.
But the noise was one of the hundred of shells slamming into the city as Russian forces crossed the border and launched a full-scale, brutal blitzkrieg on their neighbour.
The shells pounded into the city and destroyed her apartment and most of the building. Her family spent three weeks hunkering down in the basement, while shells and rockets rained down, before fleeing to a refugee camp in Moldova.
Up until then, Kolesnikova had been teaching biomedical systems and web design at the Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics.
Before the bombing, her husband was an engineer. He now volunteers delivering food to the elderly in Kharkiv and digs out bodies of the living and the dead from the ruins.
“Yesterday, you were a university professor and today … you’re homeless,” said her cousin Katerina Pogrebinski, who helped with translation Saturday at the Canadian Multiculturalism Day in Maple Ridge’s Memorial Peace Park.
“It’s an incredible, overnight transition… from the people who never did anything wrong,” and who just wanted to live in a free country, she added.
Kolesnikova eventually was accepted under the Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel, and arrived in Canada a month ago.
A host family in Maple Ridge is giving her and her two children, Maryna and Maksym, a place to live until they get settled.
“I’m looking for my first Canadian job,” said Kolesnikova, who drops off three resumes every day.
Her daughter, a nationally ranked swimmer in Ukraine, is already washing dishes at Meadow Gardens Golf Course, in order to improve her English. Eventually, she’d like to get a job coaching swimming.
Maksym will be repeating Grade 9 to get up to speed on English, but in the meantime has found a place on the Albion Football Club.
After weeks of bombing and shelling, the family doesn’t talk about what they’ve been through.
“We don’t talk about it all, but the pain we go through is very real,” Kolesnikova said.
Such experiences change a person’s life so dramatically, added Pogrebinski, a teacher at Garibaldi secondary.
“There’s nothing you can compare to it.”
Amnesty International has verified that Russia has used banned cluster bombs. Amnesty says it has also documented a “broad pattern of unlawful, indiscriminate attacks,” in Kharkiv. Indiscriminate attacks which kill civilians constitutes a war crime.
Today, it’s difficult to know what lies ahead.
“We don’t know what’s tomorrow. In Ukraine, everybody lives one day at a time,” Kolesnikova said.
Pogrebinski said if Russia takes over Ukraine, the family won’t return.
“Nobody wants to live under Russian rule.”
If Ukraine repels the invaders, it’s possible she may go back. But her focus is on her kids and the current reality – that she has no home to return to.
“She has no option,” said Pogrebinski.
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The lack of understanding, of why they’re being attacked by a neighbour, hurts. Many families in Kharkiv had family and friends on both sides of the border. Kharkiv is about 40 kilometres from Russia.
“Many Ukrainian people could not believe that our Russian brothers could go to (attack) us,” Kolesnikova said. It’s difficult to comprehend what happened, she added.
Pogrebinski’s husband Igor, points out the absolute senselessness of the war.
“You don’t bomb and obliterate your brothers,” he said.
It would be like Canadians spending the day shopping in Seattle, only to have Americans bomb Vancouver the next day, added Katerina.
But she points out, there is opposition in Russia to the war, despite heavy repression.
“There’s no one colour you can paint the Russians either.”
Igor wants to add his deep appreciation to the host family and for everyone’s help.
“We are all extremely grateful to people who are opening their homes. I’m so happy that there are kind people in this country.”
With the future unknown, Kolesnikova is focused on building a new life, and grateful for the overwhelming amount of help she’s received, adding she’s used to doing everything herself. But she’s confident and strong. “Of course, because I’m a Ukrainian woman,” she said.
But it’s easy to be a strong woman when you have lots of support, she adds.
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