Refugee returns to Ukraine as war widow seeking to bring husband’s ashes to Canada By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Thursday, May. 18, 2023

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This article was published 18/05/2023 (842 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hanna Sidorchenko left her husband behind in Ukraine only two months ago, but she is on her way back — this time to look for his body.

Her husband, Andrii, a soldier with the Ukrainian armed forces, is one of the latest casualties in the more than year-long war sparked when Russia invaded its neighbour.

Sidorchenko said it was her husband’s long-held dream, even before the war started, to move to Canada to start a new life.

“It was our family dream to come to Canada. My husband had photos and video of Canada and people would say, ‘You really like Canada,’” Sidorchenko said through a translator.

“I hope to find his body, give him a proper funeral and cremation, and bring his ashes back to Canada. He will come to Canada. It was his dream.”

Sidorchenko flies out of Winnipeg on Friday, joined on her tragic task by Oksana Lazarenko, a friend she has met in Manitoba who helps with translation.

“We don’t know his body’s whereabouts,” Sidorchenko said. “He was killed in Bakhmut — that’s where the battle is now.”

On Thursday, Ukrainian forces were advancing on Russian troops in the ruins of the city in eastern Ukraine. The battle has been described by a “meat grinder” by both sides who have recorded losses there for months.

Sidorchenko said her parents first received the news about her husband.

“My parents, they received a note from the military service he was serving in that he died on May 4 at 11:40 p.m.,” she said.

“There were two witnesses. The commander of the battalion said he passed away and his body was taken away (from the battlefront). He said he died in his friend’s arms.”

Sidorchenko said her husband’s role in the battalion was operating a drone overhead to check on enemy strength and troop movements. “They would observe before the battle so there was less losses.”

She last saw her husband Dec. 16, before he left to join his battalion.

Lazarenko said Sidorchenko has told her if it wasn’t for her husband, she would still be in Ukraine. The woman was working as a cosmetologist while her husband had been employed at a construction company, while running a part-time welding business on the side.

“She says she wasn’t going to leave Ukraine, but she has a son, 18. To save him from conscription she moved to Poland and then to Canada,” Lazarenko said. “Her husband insisted they go to save their son.”

Sidorchenko said she has been volunteering and upgrading her English while seeking employment.

“We stayed in a hotel for a month, and then we moved into an apartment on May 2,” she said. “I received the news on May 5.”

The woman said her 18-year-old son, Rostyslav, who has found a job doing construction work, is staying behind while she goes to Ukraine.

“He would have to stay to fight if he went,” she said. “He wouldn’t be able to leave if he went there.”

Because Sidorchenko doesn’t have the money to return to Ukraine, pay the costs of staying there while she searches, and then cover funeral costs, she has launched an online Gofundme fundraiser. In just over a week, it has raised $4,270 of its $26,000 goal.

She is hoping the fundraiser is enough for her to pay for something else, too.

“I hope we get enough so our son, who is working now, can take a year off and go to school,” Sidorchenko said.

“If I can cover the cost of rent for a year, my son can finish Grade 12 and not have to provide for us.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

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