Max and Viktoriia Shkurupii, both 36, are now working in Victoria as travel agents, a business they had to abandon in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital city, when the Russians invaded the country last February
Ukrainian refugees Max and Viktoriia Shkurupii no longer have to worry about missiles flying overhead and the ground shaking beneath their feet.
You can see the difference the last 10 months has made in their children’s smiles, say their parents. Cathy Scott, owner of Departures Travel in Oak Bay and Sidney, says she was contacted by the couple several months ago as they began their journey out of the Ukraine.“I have three kids of my own and one of them is 36 — the same age as these two,” says Scott. “My kids grew up in a peaceful country, they had opportunities, so I couldn’t imagine what Max and Viktoriia were going through.
The Shkurupii family is part of a flood of 117,000 Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in Canada — the federal government received more than 700,000 requests for temporary visas from Ukraine between March and November. Max adds: “It’s not what we wanted for our kids, to live in a nightmare. This is when the Russians took the suburbs, only seven to 10 kilometres to Kyiv. It was time the children and Viktoriia had to leave”
They bought non-perishable items like flour and sugar and acquired medications and pharmacy items to deliver to the elderly who were unable to get out because of the bombing damage. There was no public transportation.
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