On a mild Sunday morning in Kingston, Ont., a mixture of locals and Ukrainian refugees filed into St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church.
It’s become a sanctuary for some who arrived in Kingston within the past year during an unfathomably frightening time of their lives.
Sasha Hanzia arrived in the city in October but he said it wasn’t an easy path.
“After fleeing Kyiv, I went to Lviv where I stayed a couple of weeks, and after Lviv started getting bombed I took the bus from red cross to Poland,” he said, through a translator.
From Poland, he came directly to Kingston, where he’s remained ever since, waiting.
He said the community opened its arms to him and others, and that he is incredibly grateful for the kindness.
Father Roman Rytsar, pastor at St Michael, said Sunday’s service was a special one at which they honoured those who lost their lives in the Ukraine-Russia war that began last year.
“Ukrainians are tough people, it’s very difficult to break them,” he said.
Despite the terror they’ve faced in the last year, many who attended the service found reasons to smile, while remembering those they’ve lost.
“I’m feeling bad for those people who could not escape Ukraine, they stayed there, many people died under bombing,” said Hanzia.
Even though he’s in Kingston because his own life has been turned upside down, Hanzia’s mind was back home, halfway across the world.
“I’m happy to come here to the Ukrainian church to pray for people who stayed in Ukraine,”
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