‘I like it here:’ Saskatchewan town steps up for Ukrainian refugees

Standing on Main Street in Lemberg, with shops on either side and a grain elevator peeking over the tops of buildings in the distance, the town seems a world away from the war and devastation in Ukraine – and for some, that’s the point.

“We want a very quiet place. I don’t want a big city. In Ukraine we lived in a big city and I’m very tired,” Yuliia Maliuchenko said with a laugh. “Now I’m very happy because this is a very small place, very quiet, very nice.”

Maliuchenko and her family were the first Ukrainian family brought to Lemberg by the Lemberg Community Refugee Fund.

Gerry Kohlert helped start the fund and the group behind it just about one year ago.

It started right in this house watching TV and seeing some young women dragging children with a suitcase across a border. And I felt, ‘Gee, you’ve got to do something more than feel sorry for these people,’ ” Kohlert said as he sat at his kitchen table in town.

So Kohlert got together with some family and eventually people from the community joined in as well. They worked to raise money, find housing and jobs for displaced people to come to. A farming family outside town said they would host two families to come work and live on the farm, and a businessman in town has furnished multiple people with jobs when they arrived.

Kohlert said it was the dire need of the people wanting to get out of the war zone that spurred him to act.

“It’s heart-wrenching when you watched it,” he said.

Gerry Kohlert and others helped start the Lemberg Community Refugee Fund and has brought several displaced Ukrainian families to the town and area. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

Maliuchenko is originally from a town near the Russian border. She said the fighting actually started years ago when Russia came in to take Ukrainian territory in 2014.

“All our army go to (war) and I see every day. Not good, not good,” said Maliuchenko.

She and her family left shortly after that and had been living in Slovakia before coming to Canada. And, as it turns out, it was a good thing they weren’t in their Ukrainian town when the latest Russian attack began in February 2022.

“When … Russia attacked Ukraine, in my town (there were) three bombs,” she said.

The first thing Maliuchenko and her husband do when they wake up in the morning is check to see what’s happened in Ukraine because they both still have family there.

“I called my parents probably every second day. Sometimes they don’t have power, (electricity), internet so it’s very hard because I didn’t know what happened. Is everything OK or not?” she said.

She got a little emotional talking about the war, saying it’s hard to see what’s happening.

“My heart is broken,” she said.

Tetiana Levchenko and her husband arrived in Lemberg a short time after the Maliuchenkos. The Levchenkos lived in Poltava, near Kharkov in central Ukraine.

Tetiana Levchenko and her husband fled Ukraine when the war began in Feb. 2022 and arrived in Lemberg, Sk that summer. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

“We heard the sound of bombs and when the ground would shake, it was very scary,” said Levchenko.

A couple of days after the war started, they left. They stayed in Poland for two or three months then were given the all-clear to come to Canada. But she has a mother and brother still in Ukraine.

Levchenko said her brother won’t leave but she wants her mother to follow them to Canada.

“But my mother doesn’t have good health and she can’t come. She’ll stay now in Ukraine alone in her house,” said Levchenko.

“I feel safe here. But my mother now, in Ukraine, every day (there’s an) alarm. This isn’t good for her nerves. Every day something happens, something (is) bombed and many people die and this news isn’t very good for our health.”

In the year since the war started, six families have arrived in Lemberg, with three more in the process of coming.

Kohlert said the community response has been overwhelming; they came together to supply the families with everything they need.

“All these houses were totally furnished by donation,” said Kohlert.

“The immigrants, when they came, were nothing but overwhelmed at the generosity and peace of mind, the safety that our community provides them.”

At this point, the community would like to bring more, but Kohlert said money is the limiting factor. They also need to find more jobs.

“As you might realize, in a small community like this, there isn’t a whole lot of jobs,” said Kohlert.

He said the families have been more than willing to join in the community, they just have to ask. And he said thus far, each of them have wanted to stay.

“In fact, the first family that arrived, we found them accommodation in the seniors manor and since then they’ve purchased a house, actually,” said Kohlert.

Levchenko wants to stay in Lemberg but said her husband is sad to be so far away from his home.

“He says he feels comfortable but very sad about Ukraine. But for me, I like it here and I will be staying,” she said.

The Maliuchenkos are looking to stay as well. Yuliia said their two sons are here with them and she said they were even about to meet the parents of one of her sons’ girlfriends soon.