'We want peace': Local Ukrainian community fears for family back home

Just before dawn on Thursday, Julia Rudeva heard a distant explosion followed by another explosion. She lives in Kherson, a city in the south of Ukraine, with her mother.

This particular night, she could not sleep, so she was doing some errands around her apartment. She thought the sounds came from a firework.

“Why I thought it was a firework was because it wasn’t right next to my house. It was a little bit further away,” Rudeva said.

“I kind of convinced myself and continued cleaning.”

Shortly after, Rudeva heard a third explosion. She opened her window and smelled smoke.

“I’m like, what’s going on, maybe fireworks again,” she said.

“I’ve never been in the middle of a war in my life. So, my brain refused believing anything like that can happen.”

Two more explosions followed. Then her mother received a call on WhatsApp from another friend who lives in Cyprus.

“It was a terrifying phone call. My friend was crying, saying, ‘Julia get out of Ukraine. Putin is bombing. It’s next to you,” she said.

“The sun rose, and I saw clearly the black smoke in the air and traces of something falling from the sky… and the smell of something burned.”

Russia had begun its invasion of Ukraine and what Rudeva heard were missiles and air raids. Rudeva believes they were targeting the military base in the area.

“We couldn’t cope with our mind, with emotions, with shock, with everything together,” she said.

Rudeva said she and her mom were in a state of complete panic, not knowing what to do.

“I felt like all we could do was stay because there was bombing everywhere in Ukraine. There was nowhere to go.”

Later that day, Rudeva decided she had to prepare for the worst and needed to pack emergency go-bags, stock up on groceries, and fill up the gas in her car, which was running low.

“I went to the shop, and it was packed. There was no place to park,” she said.

“There was a long, long line, which looked like two to three kilometres, and it was going to the petrol station. The only petrol station that was open.”

The following night, she said the explosions were much closer, and the people in her apartment went to a basement for safety. A video taken by Rudeva shows children and parents in a dark green room. The windows are covered with what looks like either wood or cardboard. A child can be heard audibly crying.

Rudeva said she keeps her windows open now so she can hear everything outside. Any loud noise brings her and her mother to their knees.

“There were three planes that passed really, really low, and it was a terrifying noise... and straight away I grab the dog, mom grabs the cat, and we run, and we fall on the floor.”

Rudeva said the chaos she has experienced over the last few days has been slightly easier due to the messages of support she has received from friends in Canada and across the world.

“It’s good to know, we’re not left out on the side of the road, that there are people concerned,” she said.

“It makes us a bit stronger and less in panic.”

Friends like Dmytro Troyan, lives in Red Deer. For days, he has stayed glued to the TV listening to the latest news on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He’s constantly worried about his friends and family back home.

“I ask them to message me or any way to inform me where they are, what’s happening, if they safe,” he said.

Troyan’s family lives in Mykolaiv, also in south Ukraine. He said the Russian army attacked a military airbase near his home.

“My stepfather saw the missile was flying over the building,” he said.

“He saw it, and after a few seconds later, there was a huge earthquake, and car horns went off.”

But, he said, his family does not plan on leaving.

“They still keep patriotism, and they say this is our land, and we are Ukrainian.”

“We have history. We have tradition. We are Ukrainian.”

Rudeva does not want to leave either.

“I love my country. I want this war to end in a good way. I mean that they leave,” she said.

“We want peace. We want a normal life.”