Three years after the war: Ukrainian refugees still adapting to life in Montreal

Three years after the Russian invasion, Ukrainian refugees struggle to adapt to new life in Montreal.

Yuliia Duchko settled in Montreal nearly three years ago. She fled her homeland of Odesa, Ukraine in May 2022, just a few months after the war broke out.

“You don’t know what’s going on or what to expect,” Yuliia said. “It’s a really unexpected experience when you understand that all your life can be fit into one luggage.”

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Her mother and her sister, Oleksandra, joined her a few months later. Yuliia and Oleksandra speak French, but they’ve found it hard adapting to a new country. Yuliia is looking for work after having a seasonal job and Oleksandra wants to go back to school.

“I miss my family, I miss my friends, I still miss my previous life,” Oleksandra said. “Sometimes, I wonder whether it would be different if I stayed there.”

Both sisters have a lot of family members back home and despite being far from war, there are still a lot of challenges.

“Constant stress, to be honest,” Yuliia said. “You never know what you’re going to expect next.”

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They say Canada has been welcoming and supportive, but it’s not home.

“Emotionally, there are lots of challenges. The war is raging on in Ukraine,” said Simon Kouklewski, vice-presient at the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. “The support is there and they know it. They feel it and they’re super grateful for it.”

Yuliia says she thinks about moving back home to Ukraine constantly, but with so much uncertainty in Ukraine right now, she may end up having to stay in Canada for a lot longer.

“I’m trying to calculate all the possibilities and risks,” she said. “I don’t want to be in the war environment anymore. I don’t want to raise kids in a war environment. I love my country. It was before the war, the great country.”