Winnipeg couple preparing to welcome family members fleeing Russia’s war in Ukraine

Valerie Alipova, 24, and her partner Jim Cheng, 31, are preparing to welcome Valerie’s sister and her two children, who fled the war in Ukraine, to their home in Charleswood. (CTV News Photo Josh Crabb)

A Winnipeg couple who immigrated to Canada themselves are now preparing to help displaced family members fleeing the war in Ukraine.

Valerie Alipova, a pastor at Bethel Mennonite Church who came to Canada from Ukraine in 2015, and her partner Jim Cheng, who immigrated to Canada from Taiwan, are making room in their Charleswood home for Alipova’s sister and her two children who are currently staying in the Czech Republic after leaving Ukraine two days after the war broke out.

“I think they’re tired,” Alipova said. “It’s exhausting not to be at home. Not to be with your family and just being in a stranger’s home. We’re looking forward for them to be here and maybe be at rest for the first time in three weeks.”

Alipova’s sister, Alina, 30, and children Tima, nine, and Mia, four, are among nearly three million people in Ukraine who have fled since Russia invaded on Feb. 24.

Oleg, Alina’s husband and Tima and Mia’s father, is a small business owner and remains in Ukraine where he’s been driving people to the border who are fleeing the fighting.

Men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country.

Cheng said that part has been especially difficult for Mia.

“Mia would look outside the window from the house they’re staying and when she sees a car, she would point to the car saying, ‘daddy, daddy’ in Ukrainian but it’s not daddy,” Cheng said. “Daddy is back in Ukraine. Daddy is staying in Ukraine and helping out other internally displaced families.”

The family drove to three different border crossings before Alina and the kids were able to exit the country.

They were met with long lineups at the Polish border and packed trains at the Slovakian border before finally making their way to the Czech Republic through Hungary while Oleg stayed behind.

“They found two strangers, two elderly women and asked them if Alina and the kids could get in the car to cross the border to safety,” Cheng said. “And the two women – complete strangers – took them in.”

The two women drove Alina and the children to meet an acquaintance of Oleg who took them to Prague, where they’re waiting for their passports to arrive from the Canadian Embassy in Austria.

Cheng said Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada approved a temporary Canadian visa for Alina and her children on Mar. 10.

“We’re just so thankful for our community,” Cheng said. “They supported us financially, supported us emotionally. We have raised money from our church community, our Mennonite community to cover flight tickets and we have also received donations of beds and winter clothes and other essential items because when they fled their home, they left with two small backpacks.”

“We’re hoping to have them in our home in a week or two.”

The couple has been receiving monetary donations through an online fundraiser. They’re also planning to send money to Ukraine to support Valerie’s mom – a middle school principal in eastern Ukraine who stayed in her community to volunteer at a bomb shelter beneath the school.

Cheng and Alipova are also hoping to support Valerie’s sister, who is six months pregnant and had to leave her home to take up residence in a small village where they say medical supplies and health care aren’t easily accessible.

Alina’s husband Oleg has also given up the family’s apartment to three internally displaced families whose homes were destroyed and he’s now staying with his mother.