"It's like your heart drops inside your body."
That's how Denys Brovenko describes first hearing that Russia had invaded Ukraine.
The 37-year-old hails from Odessa, Ukraine but was spending some time in Turkey when he received the news on Telegram — an instant messaging app that has become increasingly popular in Eastern Europe.
While he wasn't at home when the war broke out, all his family and friends were in Ukraine.
"It's painful... it's a big, dark hole inside of me," he tells Vancouver Is Awesome. "There's no way to explain the feelings."
When Brovenko and his wife Valentina Movika arrived in B.C. in mid-April, he says he received a warm welcome from the local community. "We were so happy to see the Ukrainian flags."
The couple was connected with a host family through United Way British Columbia and with the support of a non-profit organization called Help Us Help Ukraine.
"We don't know how to pay them back for their kindness," he said, adding that the host family has provided tremendous support.
Van Erickson and Jennifer Buckland welcomed the Ukrainian refugees into their basement suite on the UBC endowment lands after they saw a story on the news.
"We saw it on the television one night. Ukrainians were sleeping at the airport because they didn't have a place to stay," Buckland explains.
This isn't the first time that the couple has opened up their home to people in need. Several years ago, a family of four from Nelson stayed with them after their home was destroyed by a wildfire; they also welcomed a woman who fled the conflict in Syria.
But when the host couple first bought the house roughly 25 years ago, it didn't include a basement suite for guests.
"We were renovating, my husband and I, we did most of the work ourselves... but the house caught fire one day," Buckland tells V.I.A.
The home was destroyed by the blaze and the couple had to completely rebuild it from the ground up — and that included adding in a basement suite.
"We got a better house in the long run and we put a little suite in there because we thought it might [turn out to be] useful."
While she may not have imagined housing refugees fleeing overseas conflicts, Buckland says the experience is very rewarding and the couple would do it again.
The Vancouver hosts helped the Ukrainian couple in the beginning but they were "very independent from the start," she adds.
A couple moves to Vancouver following the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Since moving to Vancouver, Brovenko has acquired a full-time job and bought a car. His home city, Odessa, shares several similarities to Vancouver, which made the move easier, he explains.
"I used to live near the sea and near the mountains."
But as much as he appreciates all of the help he's received in Vancouver — the city simply isn't home for the Ukrainian.
"I really love Odessa," he says. "I really love people here... [they] are so nice... but home is home. It's the place where you [grew up].
"You always want to be back where your memories [are from and] where your friends from childhood [are]."
Brovenko's wife is pregnant, however, and so the couple doesn't foresee moving home a possibility for at least a few years — but the timeline is also contingent on the war.
For now, the Ukrainian man's heart aches for his homeland and for his friends and family who remain there, including his mother in Odessa.
In one incident, Brovenko says his friend was captured by the Russians and forced to join their army. He was able to escape by giving an officer a $10,000 bribe but they took his documents and he can't cross the border back into Ukraine.
Stories like this are not an anomaly, he underscores, adding that many of them are worse.
"I want all Ukrainian people to start to lead happy lives."
For information about how you can help the Ukrainian refugees settling in Canada, visit the United Way British Columbia, Help Us Help Ukraine and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
