Mother, daughter take refuge in Stavely

By Rob Vogt Local Press Writer
With Russian troops invading their country, a mother and daughter have fled Ukraine and taken refuge with family in Stavely.
Iryna Pustovoyt and her daughter Polina arrived in Stavely on March 6 after a two-week journey that took them across Eastern Europe.
They are staying with Anna (Zaporoshchenko) Koshney. She is Iryna’s sister-in-law and Polina’s aunt, who immigrated to Canada 15 years ago and lives in Stavely with her husband Abby Koshney.
Polina speaks excellent English while Iryna speaks through either Anna or Polina.
A month ago they were in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Iryna was an advisor at a beauty salon, her husband Sergey was a businessman, Polina was studying advertising and public relations, and her brother Max was an Information Technology, or IT, specialist.
Polina admits no one thought it would happen – the Russians invading Ukraine.
Then Feb. 23 came.
“It was like a normal day,” Polina said.
Then her father heard an explosion.
“We all woke up,” Polina said.
They watched television and news, trying to find out what was going on.
How could they protect themselves, they discussed.
Their first thought was a bomb shelter.
Meanwhile, they also had a friend in Kyiv who asked to come into their apartment too, with two parents and two children.
For two days, no one slept at all, and someone always kept watch.
When they did get rest, they slept in the corridor, because it was as far away from the window as possible.
At that point, they decided not to go to the bomb shelter.
Initially, they did not want to leave at all.
After all they had seen this movie before. Back in 2014, they were living in their native city of Donetsk when the Russians advanced and the family was forced to flee to Kyiv.
However, again, it was time to go now.
“If we don’t do this now, it could be too late,” Polina said. “Every minute was valuable.”
After another fitful night, the daily curfew had ended in the morning and they heard the news. The Russians were just five kilometres away.
At first they thought they were too late, but they decided to leave Kyiv anyway.
“All the people were leaving Kyiv,” Polina said.
Sergey and Max stayed behind to help the military.
As Iryna and Polina approached the outskirts of Kyiv, they heard a lot of explosions.
“They were very close,” Polina said, noting it was a hot spot.
Because they had been forced to flee once before, from Donetsk, they had all the necessities they needed ready to go.
They wanted to reach Lviv and Novovolynsk, which was right near the Polish border.
It was very slow going though. Fuel had been rationed, with everyone allowed 20 litres. Many vehicles had run out of fuel so they were scattered everywhere, and the Pustovoyts had to weave around them.
However, Sergey had made sure to keep Iryna and Polina’s fuel tank full.
They had been on the road 10 hours when they arrived at Lviv. Polina said they were lucky because they had fuel and didn’t have to stop.
From there it was to Novovolynsk where a friend of a friend had an apartment they stayed at for one night.
The next day they decided to walk across the border to Poland. The eight kilometres took about two hours to walk. Had they driven, it would have taken two days.
They waited six hours at the border.
While they waited, Iryna said people were so friendly and helping each other. Locals brought food and tea, and helped mothers with their young children. Even at the border, there was a fence, but Poles were reaching through the fence with food for the Ukrainians.
Iryna stressed everyone was so helpful. The Russians had been spreading misinformation that Russian-speaking Ukrainians were in conflict with other Ukrainians, and west and east were fighting each other. She emphasized that was not the case at all.
Crossing into Poland, the Pustovoyts just had to show their passport to enter the country.
However, all Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 were turned back.
Martial Law had been declared in Ukraine meaning they would have to stay and fight.
Polina said there was a woman behind her with two children, including a baby, and they were asking if her husband could cross too. Officials told them he could not, and faced jail time if he tried.
In Poland, they connected with another friend.
When Polina was younger, she competed in gymnastics, where she met a lot of people. She stayed in touch with one friend who, in the meantime, had moved to Poland, and was now living in Warsaw.
Those friends drove the 320 kilometres from Warsaw to the border to pick up Iryna and Polina, and took them back to the Polish capital.
They spent five days in Warsaw, trying to figure out what to do.
“Poles are very supportive people,” Polina said. “Everybody wants to help.
“That’s nice.”
At the same time, Iryna volunteered to help provide food, clothing and shelter to those fleeing the Russians. Polina visited her friend’s school and even took one class.
Yet, Poland was still too close to fighting so, ultimately, the Pustovoyts decided to move to Canada.
There were more delays, due to COVID-19 protocols. Luckily, their connecting flight was delayed so they were able to make that plane.
They took off from Warsaw and stopped in Amsterdam before proceeding to Calgary.
Ideally, they want to reunite with Sergey and Max.
In the meantime, they are waiting for their documentation to be fast-tracked so they can get on with their lives.
“I’m very happy to be here with my very close family,” Polina said. “I can’t imagine two weeks ago I would be here.”
But her eyes are still trained on her home land.
“I’m still worrying about the situation back there,” she said.
Polina is also troubled by the misinformation the Russians are spreading.
She related the story of meeting a 19-year-old Russian student a few months ago. They had a nice conversation until he discovered she was from Ukraine. He said Ukraine was a rotten nation and any conflict was their fault.
This was in January already.
“I realized, everything starts with people,” Polina said.
That’s why she is trying to spread the truth – to people.
“You want to say something,” Polina said. “They don’t want to listen to you.”
Polina wants to make them listen.
A GoFundMe page called “help my family from Ukraine escape war”, has been set up for Iryna and Polina Pustovoyt to help them get settled in Canada.
(Please see related stories on page four)