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A year ago, on February 24, 2022, Marta Kosar woke up from her mother and said that the war started when Russia invaded their country.
After a week of stalemate and trips to the basement, when air raid sirens wailed in her native Lviv on the western outskirts of Ukraine, 16-year-old Kosar began the difficult journey away from her home, her family. , her friends and her country.
After leaving Ukraine on March 2, Kosar went to Hungary for a week. After Hungary, Kosar stayed in Austria, Spain for one month and Montreal for a few days before leaving for London on 27 April.
“It’s been a long road,” Kosar told Global News on the eve of the war’s anniversary.
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A little less than five months later, Kosar’s cousin, 15-year-old Bozena Melnychuk, arrived from Ukraine on September 24, 2022, leaving her home and family in a temporary safe place along with her cousin and aunt Sofia.
During their stay in Ukraine, after the outbreak of the war, the couple say that air raid sirens were common, although, fortunately, bombs were not dropped as often.
Kosar and Melnychuk are just two of more than 150,000 Ukrainians who have made it to Canada since the conflict began a year ago.
Teenagers attend St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic High School in London’s West End. Both tenth graders say their teachers and classmates make them feel “surprisingly” comfortable.
“They are very kind and want to help me get better,” Kosar said of her teachers.
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Kosar and Melnichuk said adjusting to Canadian high school went well, and Kosar said she’s doing better in math now compared to when she was at home.
Melnychuk, adding that math is also easier for her, says she sometimes finds it difficult to communicate in English because she has only been in London for five months.
“I understand the information, but it’s harder to speak,” says Melnychuk, although he adds with confidence that it will improve.
Melnichuk and Kosar expressed their gratitude to the people in London and Canada who supported the Ukrainians, including the host family.
“They helped us with everything and gave us a place to call home,” Melnichuk said.
While adjusting to school and life in Canada was going well, they weren’t prepared for one thing: the weather.
“It’s cold here and the wind is very strong,” Kosar laughs.
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But no matter how hard their teachers and new friends try to help Kosar and Melnichuk feel welcome and adjust to the cold, London is still not their home and not the place where their family and friends are. Teenagers keep in touch with their family virtually, but say it doesn’t feel like face-to-face contact.
“I miss my family, my friends, my house, my room,” says Kosar, adding that she misses the simple pleasure of just walking down her home street with her neighbors.
Melnychuk says he misses his mother and older sister, who is studying at the university.
Unlike some of the 150,000 Ukrainians displaced to Canada as a result of the war, Kosar and Melnychuk say moving to Canada was part of their life plans. This happened several years ahead of schedule.
Both say that before the war, Western University was already being considered as a place to continue their studies after high school. Melnychuk says he wants to study engineering, while Kosar wants to study cosmetology or dermatology.
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Kosar says he looks forward to the day he sees his family again. However, she reiterates that she plans for Canada to be part of her future life.
“I am starting a new life and want to finish my studies here,” says Kosar.
“I hope I can go home in the summer for one month to see family and friends.”
The London branch of the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress holds a picket with candles at the city hall on Friday at 18:00.
Daria Gritskiv, president of the London chapter, says there will be prayers led by local Catholic, Orthodox and Pentecostal leaders, as well as comments from Mayor Josh Morgan and local Ukrainians.
“We will light candles, pray and support Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” Gritskiv said.
— with files from The Canadian Press.
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