Oleg Koleboshyn, a Quebecer of Ukrainian origin, is waiting for his flight at Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau airport to Romania, where he will pick up his mother-in-law. The latter will leave by car from Odessa with a childhood friend of Mr. Koleboshyn.
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“You really have to love your mother-in-law a lot to pick her up,” he says, laughing lightly. The Quebecer will stop in London before landing in Romania.
His parents, meanwhile, chose to stay in their country despite the threat of invasion: “I respect their choice a lot, it’s very brave.”
“I don’t cry a lot, but the last few days the tears are coming out.”
Her father, a 70-year-old secondary school principal, wants to stay because he feels responsible for the children at his school, even though the institutions are closed.
Oleg Koleboshyn also has two brothers in Ukraine. They have been trying for almost 24 hours to leave the country through the Moldovan border. The border is only 30 kilometers from the city of Odessa, where they reside.
Like Mr. Oleg’s parents, thousands of Ukrainians want to stay in their country; for the majority, it is a desire to fight for the nation that justifies their decision.
“It’s a kind of patriotism, it’s hard to explain,” says Mr. Koleboshyn. It’s to beat Putin in fact, not the Russians.
Oleg Koleboshyn is not without fear, but is reassured to see the solidarity of the international scene in the face of the invasion of his native country.
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Reference-www.journaldemontreal.com