Weary Ukrainian newcomers receive heartfelt welcome at Saskatoon airport

Elizabeth Andres has been waiting five months to meet the mom and her seven-year-old son who will be living with her and her family face to face.

The Andres’ will be hosting Elena and Zhenya for as long as they want to stay with them. Elena’s husband stayed in Ukraine to serve on the front lines.

“We’re not going, ‘Oh, just two, three weeks (and) you’ve got to go,’ ” Andres said.

Andres teared up waiting for them to disembark from their flight and make their way into the international arrivals part of the Saskatoon airport on Wednesday.

It’s been several meetings — over FaceTime, of course — with tours of their home and changes to meet Elena’s husband and put his own worries at ease leading up to the Warsaw flights arrival in Saskatoon.

A neighbour of the Andres, who lives just a kilometre and a half away, is sponsoring a Ukrainian family also — one who is friends with Elena and Zhenya.

The Canadian families don’t speak any Ukrainian and the families they are sponsoring speak very little English, but they are excited to learn more about the people staying with them and help them get their feet underneath them now that they’re in Saskatoon.

Elena and Zhenya are part of the more than 200 Ukrainians — and a few of their furry companions — who arrived in Saskatchewan on Thursday.

The fourth flight from Warsaw landed in the province Wednesday, for the first time bringing its passengers to Saskatoon instead of Regina.

More snapshots of the warm welcome Ukrainian newcomers received when they stepped onto Saskatchewan soil today pic.twitter.com/k3kKU0VNR4

— Libby Giesbrecht (@GiesbrechtLibby) November 24, 2022

The flight was delayed, initially set to arrive around 3:15 p.m. and instead landing closer to 5 p.m.

With this latest flight, Saskatchewan has now welcomed around 3,000 Ukrainian refugees to the province since the war began.

Enrique Pineyro, who owns the plane and piloted the flight that brought the Ukrainians to Saskatoon, said it was a good feeling to know he had brought another group of refugees to safety and hope.

“It was lovely. For the first time, they fixed the weather for us,” he joked.

Pineyro said the flight was standard, right down to the hour-late departure (“That’s Warsaw,” he quipped). He said he’s flown about 20 flights of refugees in his career — not just from Ukraine, but also North Africa and Afghanistan.

He said every flight is different. He’s heard from some running away from the terrors of war, and those learning they’re leaving will greet the plane with prayer and dancing.

“But 48 hours after the fall of Mariupol, it was impossible. It was women, kids, old people. All of them lost a father or a husband or a son and that was very, very sad,” he said.

As for the feeling on this flight, Pineyro said it was positive.

“It feels good we can do it and it feels very bad we have to,” he said, calling attention to the despair in the world necessitating the flights he is piloting.

“I mean, Canadian hospitality is legendary. They even make musicals about it,” he said, referring to the show about Newfoundland taking in flights after 9/11.

He added more countries should be receiving refugees like Canada.

Andres said her family wanted to host a family from Ukraine because her husband’s father was a prisoner of war during the Second World War. He ended up in a concentration camp.

“So many people helped him and we decided when we saw the war happening that we really needed to do something to make a difference,” she said.

“This is a small difference but it’s something that’s important to this family.”

Emotional, Andres said it’s been a long five months waiting for passports. She said she cried on the way to the airport. And when Elena and Zhenya finally came out of the gate, she cried again, throwing her arms around the mom as her boy sat on their luggage cart, smiling.

A bit later, a man with a bouquet of red roses rushed over the line to meet a woman coming off the plane. They met in an emotional embrace that lasted minutes.

Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark was at the airport to welcome each arrival off the plane, along with Saskatoon city council member Cynthia Block and MLAs Terry Dennis and Terry Jenson.

In August, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe signed a memorandum of understanding with representatives from Solidaire and Open Arms. The agreement pledged the three parties to partner on additional flights from Ukraine into Saskatchewan.

Temporary accommodations will be available to the flight’s passengers in Saskatoon, to allow them access to supports and information about settling down in Saskatchewan. This includes two “one-stop shop” opportunities for newcomers to help them access things like Saskatchewan health cards, banking and financial assistance, housing, employment and drivers’ licences.

These opportunities will happen on Thursday and Friday at the Travelodge Hotel Saskatoon and run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.