Moose Jaw local living day-to-day life in war-torn Ukraine

A man from Moose Jaw currently finds himself in the country of Ukraine trying to take things one step at a time.

Robert Thomas is the acting editor for the Moose Jaw Independent newspaper, but his main focus since October has been doing as much as possible for the desperate citizens in Ukraine.

For Thomas, it was an easy decision to travel to the other side of the world after luck was on his side.

“I had friends here who needed some help and in October I had some money so I decided to book a flight,” Thomas said.

“To be honest, I went on a winning streak at Casino Moose Jaw and I won all this money so I came to Ukraine.”

Thomas is currently in the city of Odessa, which has a population of about one million.

The city and country it belongs to are in panic mode, with much to be worried about, according to Thomas.

“You’re starting to get more and more frantic people. Men 18 to 60 years old, they’re even stopping you from moving out of some cities. You’re not allowed to leave. You’re constricted.”

Some friends back home in Canada have reached out to Thomas, begging him to return.

However, Thomas isn’t afraid of anything.

“People tell me, ‘Why aren’t you scared?’ and I say I was in Donbas which is the actual area where the big fighting was in 2014. (I did) 11 days by myself. I said after that, I couldn’t be scared of anything else in my life.”

Thomas has always had this mentality of trying to show true bravery and courage.

“I have a heart condition that’s going to kill me. I got MS, I have depression and I had cancer. It doesn’t bother me anymore, you just get used to it,” he said.

At this point, Thomas is taking each day at a time by trying to avoid any massive conflict on the streets.

“You still have to be careful, you don’t just go out taking pictures everywhere when there’s a war on and there’s martial law and stuff like that.”

Thomas says that the poor people in Ukraine are being affected with no resources to leave the country.

“The (rich people) aren’t around paying the price. The poor people who can’t leave my neighbourhood and there’s a lot of them, they’ll be the ones paying the price for this.”

For Thomas, his plan is to return to Canada by the end of March.

-With files from 980 CJME’s Britton Gray