Marharyta Sanina, her husband Sasha and sons Timur, 9, and Alex, 2, arrived in Canada from Kharkiv, Ukraine, on February 14. Sasha found work as a truck driver, Timur is in Grade 4, and Marharyta looks after Alex at home -- at least until she finds a babysitter.
      They are one of more than 50 families now living in Charlotte County after leaving Ukraine since the Russians invaded their country on February 24, 2022, according to Svitlana Palahuta, project assistant with the Charlotte County Multicultural Association.
      They are learning English and settling into life in St. George -- far smaller than Kharkiv, a city of more than 1.4 million at the start of the war. Marharyta used Google Translate to respond to emailed questions from The Quoddy Tides.
      "We miss our country, but it is not safe for our children there now. Canada is a beautiful country, and of course there is a possibility that we will stay here to live," she writes.
      Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, is only 25 kilometres, or 16 miles, from the Russian border. "That is why, since February 24, 2022, Russian missiles have been flying into the Kharkiv region every day, destroying residential buildings, industry and infrastructure," Marharyta writes.
      She says that Kharkiv is 500 kilometres, a bit more than 300 miles, from Palahuta's hometown of Kakhovka, which the Russians still occupy. She refers to maps available at https://deepstatemap.live/en#6/48.669/31.311 showing Kharkiv, Kakhovka and the whole front line of the war. As reported in the March 24, 2022, Quoddy Tides, Palahuta and her family left Ukraine for Canada in 2019.
      Marharyta, Sasha and the children left the city for a safer place at the start of the war but stayed in the Kharkiv region. "The life of the city stopped, some areas were methodically destroyed by missiles and enemy aircraft," Marharyta writes. Russian attempts to capture the city failed. "This is what caused such massive rocket attacks," she says.
      Sasha volunteered, helping to take people out of occupied territories, taking supplies for the military and food to "gray areas" for people unable to leave.
      People are now returning and bringing Kharkiv back to life. With warmer weather, attacks on Ukraine's electrical and heating infrastructure do not cause as much trouble as they did during the winter. The Russians have depleted their stocks of missiles, forcing them to use them "economically," and Ukrainians are getting good at quickly restoring power when missiles do strike. Reconstruction of homes has started, "but the life of the city is still difficult and, most importantly, unsafe," Marharyta writes.
      She did not lose any of her own relatives, Marharyta says, "but it hurts me a lot that every day in this war we lose our best brothers and sisters -- Ukrainians. These wonderful people. And of course the children, how many children they have killed or left crippled. It's horrible."
      She supports Ukraine's resolve to drive the Russians out and has faith in President Volodymyr Zelensky and other political and military leaders making decisions on conducting the war, for example, on whether to keep fighting for the besieged city of Bakhmut or to strategically withdraw. People can have their opinions, she writes, "but a very limited number of people from the Main Intelligence Directorate, the general staff of the ZSU [Armed Forces of Ukraine] and the president have complete information about the situation at the front. These are people who deserve respect; their decisions are absolutely correct, as the course of this war has shown. I have no doubt that in the case of Bakhmut they will make the only right decision."
      Bakhmut is close to Kharkiv. "I don't know people from Bakhmut, but I sincerely feel sorry for them. Nothing remains of the city of Bakhmut, only ruins. The same thing happened with other nearby cities; they simply do not exist," she says.
      She does not know if Ukraine can drive out the Russians this year or not but, she writes, "I have no reason not to trust President Zelensky. Not only the president, but also the head of military intelligence of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, speaks about this. They absolutely know what they are talking about."
      She praises Poland for providing tanks, MiG fighter jets and other military hardware while United States President Joe Biden holds off supplying F-16 fighter jets that the Ukrainian leadership say they need.
      "Oh, I think diplomatic language is too slow to deal with such pressing issues. They can give us planes and everything we need to win this war, but they are slow. This is not just our whim, this is a necessity, because every day the Russian army kills a huge number of people. We really need planes. And yet we are very grateful for all the help that all countries give us. Without their help, we would not have been able to hold back the onslaught of the enemy and even launch a counteroffensive," Marharyta writes.
      She states further, "We are very grateful for the help from Canada, USA and European countries. Poland showed itself in this war as a good neighbor and true friend, helping the army and people of Ukraine, defending our interests in Europe," especially the tanks, which changed the situation on the battlefield.
      "But I also know that there are a lot of weapons and equipment going to Ukraine right now, more than what is covered in the press or in free sources. This is good. Let all this be a surprise for the enemy on the battlefield. It is possible that American F-16 fighters will also appear in the Ukrainian army before everyone knows about it," she adds.
      Marharyta urges Florida Governor and Republican presidential contender Ron DeSantis, who described this war as a "territorial dispute" with no vital American interests at stake, to take up Zelensky's invitation to visit Ukraine to see for himself. "But when Ron DeSantis visits Ukraine and sees what's going on here, sees this hell on earth, I think he will change his mind," she writes.
      She believes that the Russians will allow shipments of Ukrainian grain to the rest of the world this year, but she says the Russians will do all in their power to delay passage through vessel inspections and other means.
      She accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of "lies" when he threatens to use nuclear weapons. "Putin could fire a nuclear missile at Ukraine in agony, at a moment when his failure would be as obvious and inevitable as possible. But he will not do this because he is not the only one who makes such decisions. Members of the Russian elite are not suicidal [and] they will not allow this," she writes.
      "The only nuclear danger that is real is the [possible] explosion of the power units of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. It will be a massive catastrophe for all of Europe, including Russia," Marharyta says, encouraging the world to demand that Russia withdraw troops from this region.
      Photographs provided by her father, still in Kharkiv, show what the city looks like today. "Before the war there were always a lot of people and cars here. The places where there were restaurants and boutiques now have doors and windows boarded up. Now the city is almost empty, but it is proud and not broken!" Marharyta says.