'I am safe': Mother, two children arrive in Winnipeg after fleeing Ukraine

CTV National News: Evacuation ordered in Donetsk Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy orders a mandatory evacuation of the eastern Donetsk region. Annie Bergeron-Oliver reports.

A mother and her two kids arrived in Winnipeg Sunday night after fleeing Ukraine; however, the woman’s husband had to stay behind.

“Now I am safe,” said Alina Roshko at the Winnipeg airport following her 22-hour journey.

Roshko is now staying at her sister’s Charleswood home until its safe to go back to Ukraine.

“Now we are planning to stay safe [in Canada] and then come to Ukraine when everything will be okay,” she said.

Roshko’s husband has been driving people who are fleeing the fighting to the border. It was his warning that got the family to evacuate the country.

“My husband has volunteered at the border of Slovakia and he helps, with his friends from the church, to help women and their children to go to Europe,” she explained.

“I was at home with the children during dinner, and he came and said, ‘You have 10 minutes, because I see what’s happened and I want that my family will be safe.’”

She noted that at this point her family’s bags were already packed in case they had to go to a bomb shelter.

Roshko’s journey was not an easy one, as it took multiple attempts to cross the border due to long lines.

Her family eventually made their way to the Czech Republic through Hungary.