“Now, maybe I can sleep tonight," says Irina Karzova. Her brother Andrey, 41, finally left the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, under constant Russian bombardment, on March 21 for the relative safety of Dnipro. He would stay with Alexey, a cousin to Irina's husband Denis, and they would go to the hospital the next morning to try set Andrey up for needed oncology treatments.
      "He needs treatment, so he went to Dnipro today, fortunately, because our oncology centre in Kharkiv was bombed maybe one and a half weeks ago, so he has no opportunity to receive treatment in Kharkiv, so we try to find another oncology clinic," Irina explains from the safety of her home in Pocologan.
      Getting a bit of sleep has not been easy for people in Ukraine, living a nightmare since the Russians invaded on February 24. Sleep does not come much easier for the Ukrainian diaspora, not wanting to miss telephone calls and text messages from family and friends back home.
      The Karzovas -- Denis, Irina, son Slava, now 15, and daughter Polina, now 11 -- left Kharkiv to come to Canada in 2018 when Denis accepted a job driving a truck for Sunbury Transport. They went first to Saint John before moving to Pocologan, a rural community on the Fundy Coast just east of St. George, almost two years ago.
      Irina left her job in human resources at the National Bank of Ukraine. Once in Canada, she finished her Level 6 English language training just in time for COVID 19. Since then, she has stayed home with the children, who often had to take classes online over the past two years.
      The Karzovas went back to Ukraine once since leaving for Canada. "It was a funeral; unfortunately, my oldest brother died two years ago, and we went for this reason," Irina says. They planned to return for a vacation, "but last year it was coronavirus, and we decided to stay at home in Canada," she says. "Now our plans, of course, are destroyed. I even don't know when we can come again to Ukraine."
      She feels that the shock of their older brother Sergey's death at 43 triggered a relapse in Andrey's cancer, which had been in remission for about 10 years. He was starting treatments until the Russian bombs destroyed the oncology centre, prompting the move to Dnipro to stay with Alexey. Alexey has room for a guest because his wife and two children evacuated to Romania, Irina explains. Alexey's family has applied to come to Canada where his sister, her husband, children and mother live in Dieppe, N.B.
      Irina might try to bring her brother Andrey to Canada but, first, he needs medical attention. "He needs to be in hospital [for the] next month or two months, I don't know exactly how long," she says, adding, "You understand, cancer, it can't wait." She is not so sure about her father coming to Canada. "All the time he just says, 'I want to stay in Ukraine,'" she says. "I cannot push him; it's his decision," Irina says, but he has moved to where his sister lives, which is safer than Kharkiv.
      Denis says that his father Sergey, 65, and his wife Inna left Kharkiv on March 1 for a safer location about 100 kilometres away. They could move across the border "but they like to stay in Ukraine," Denis says. His brother Petro is of military age so cannot leave. Petro and his wife Anastasia have no children, "fortunately," Denis says. He has his cousin Alexey in Dnipro, and Irina has two cousins, brothers Constantine and Sergey, left in Kharkiv. Their wives and children left, but Constantine is looking for an elderly uncle.
      Svitlana Palahuta, a Ukrainian friend of the Karzovas living at nearby Back Bay, estimates that about five families from Ukraine live in the St. George area. There were more in the St. Stephen area but not so many now. There are more around Moncton and Fredericton, she says.
      These families stay up late, not wanting to miss telephone calls or text messages from their homeland. They call themselves if they do not hear from someone for awhile. The six hour difference between New Brunswick and Ukraine means these calls come any time of the day or night. In fact, Irina got a message from a friend from Kharkiv while giving an interview to The Quoddy Tides.
      "One of my colleagues lost her life, maybe one and a half weeks ago. She lost her leg after bombing, and she died when the doctor tried to deliver her to the hospital," Irina says. This lady worked in the National Bank, but not the same department as Irina.
      Denis relates a call to friends, asking, "How are you now?" The response? "They tell me now is good. We are still alive; we had 30 rockets tonight," he says. "If they get around 100 rockets, it's not good," Denis explains -- not joking.
      People living in city high rise apartments do not have time to run to basements. The elevators do not work, and there are no lights at night, Irina says. "You can see only red, red spots on the sky when they are bombing our city, so it's crazy." The bombs started falling on her childhood home while she was talking to Andrey on March 6 at 11 p.m. in Ukraine. "They started bombing our yard and a lot of fire after this, it was a lot of fire and a lot of damage. When I saw how it looked the next day, I was shocked," Irina says. She described a "very, very strong noise, it's like planes, I cannot even explain." Further, she says, "The snow was a black colour everywhere -- like in the movie Terminator, you know?"
      There is nobody to look after the animals in the Kharkiv zoo, Irina says. "I don't wish anyone to feel the same as what we feel right now. I have not words to describe these feelings. It's very hard, very hard to even understand, because how looked my city before, and when I see in the news how it looks right now, I cannot believe this. It's a hell," she says.
      However, Irina and Denis both support the will of the Ukrainian people to stand up to this attack. They appreciate the military equipment, humanitarian aid, sanctions on Russia and other support from Canada, the United States and many other countries, but they call on the world to do more.
      Irina says other countries should help "close the skies" over Ukraine to Russian aircraft and rockets. Denis says Ukraine needs support to at least close the skies over the country's four nuclear power plants.
      Denis notes that Russia has yet to attack Turkey, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, for closing the strait connecting the Mediterranean and the Black seas. "They understand only strength," he says, referring to the Russians.
      "I admire our people. It's unbelievable how people fight for their lives, their land, their country and everyone," Irina says, adding, "Russian army is worse than German army during the Second World War."
      Denis accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of committing genocide against Ukraine. "He is crazy, crazy man," Denis says, but he does not think people surrounding the Russian president would allow him to push the nuclear button. "Our people are incredible people, our military, and we love them," he says.