A man from the Kitchener, Ont. area is working his way back to Canada after getting married in Ukraine just days before the Russian invasion began.
After being delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Kim Teylouni, 52, left Breslau for Ukraine in February to marry Iryna, a woman he met on a dating website a few years earlier.
“I was here for around a week or so, and then we got married on the 19th of February,” Teylouni told Global News.
“We got married in the registry office here in Kyiv, and I got baptized in an Orthodox church.”
Teylouni, and his new wife, who has two sons, were in the midst of planning for a honeymoon in Greece, when bombing began.
“I put (the honeymoon) off for a couple of days, and thank god we did, because the kids would have been stuck in Kyiv with their grandparents,” he explained.
“And who knows if we would have been even allowed back in the country or not?”
The Russians invaded Ukraine on Feb. 25, quickly moving in the direction of the Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, where Teylouni and his new family were staying.
He said he took Iryna and the boys to the train station where they left on an overnight train for the Slovakian border.
“My wife owned an apartment in Kyiv,” Teylouni said. “She had to leave it and all of her furniture and most of her clothes. Basically, we left with what we could carry.”
With the Russians launching their invasion, the train trip became a harrowing experience.
“On the way to Uzhorod … the train conductor was worried that the tracks may have been bombed, but luckily they were OK and we got to our destination,” the Breslau man said.
They spent about three days in Uzhorod before taking a cab to the border.
“The taxi could only take us about a kilometer from the border as the roads were just jammed. We had to walk the rest of the way,” he said.
They had to walk to the border, a task made more difficult by Iryna having hip issues.
Once they got there, Ukrainian border patrol did not allow them through right away, leaving them standing in the cold for 15 hours.
“Luckily, there were volunteers that were there and they were giving out hot drinks and food … and blankets to keep warm,” he said, noting they were eventually allowed to cross into Slovakia, after another long walk.
“The funny thing was once we got into Slovakia, it was completely clear there. Nobody was there whatsoever except border guards,” he said. “And I do have to compliment them because on the Slovakian side, they were super friendly and helpful, even helped carry our bags.”
A volunteer group shuttled the family to about a half-hour outside of Bratislava, the Slovakian capital, where the family has been staying for the past few weeks, awaiting an opportunity to come to Canada.
“It’s probably going on three weeks now since we left the Ukraine almost, and thank God, we made it,” he said.
“You know, we didn’t wait around like most people did. And they all ran into problems with the trains and the train station being bombed in Kyiv.”
Teylouni says the boys were approved for temporary visas to come to Canada on Sunday.
He says he is lucky to have a job to come back to in Canada, but he has set up a GoFundMe page to help fly the family get back as the ordeal has drained his bank account.
“Even though I’m here (in Slovakia), I still have to pay all my bills in Canada, my rent and my car. My bank account is slowly dwindling away because I haven’t been working,” he explained. “I wanted to bring them myself, just to make things OK.”
When he looks back on the trek he notes that “it’s been a crazy experience.
“I’m thankful that the kids didn’t have to see any of the bombing or (the) fighting in the streets of Kyiv. And there’s Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers all around. There have curfews because Kyiv is still getting bombed as we speak, even during the daytime now.”