Sask. man recounts experience fleeing from Ukraine to Poland

A few weeks ago, Saskatchewan-born Bryce Walker faced a difficult decision: Whether or not to leave his adopted homeland amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He chose to leave. After roughly 20 hours of travelling, Walker, his girlfriend and her child made the trip from Kyiv to Warsaw, Poland.

“It normally should have been about nine hours on a normal trip to Warsaw from where I was,” Walker told Gormley on Monday. “By the time we got here, everybody was pretty exhausted.”

Numerous checkpoints, questions and long queues awaited them on their journey.

He wasn’t sure what would await them once they arrived in the Polish capital, but what he did see surprised him.

“There are flags everywhere. The Polish people have been outstanding, very understanding (and) very helpful,” Walker said. “I had a family graciously take us in here in Warsaw the first couple nights and let us rest, feed us, and I haven’t met one person who looked poorly upon us.

“There is just an extreme amount of support for Ukraine from the Polish people.”

As supportive as people in the NATO country have been towards Walker and others fleeing Ukraine, he says Polish people acknowledge the cold reality of the situation they find themselves in.

“I think the reason why they’re being so great is because they know just how easy this can be them next,” Walker said. “The few people I’ve talked to about it here within the city, they said the same thing.

“Eighty years wasn’t that long ago; it sounds like it is, but it isn’t. They remember stories of fascist invaders coming to their country, (of) men, women, grandpas, grandmas (and) everybody fighting Nazi Germany, so it’s not too far in the past and they all still remember it.”

Walker and many others find themselves in a great deal of uncertainty as they await whatever the future might hold.

He says many Ukrainians he has spoken with hope to return to their homes someday, even if they have no idea what their home might look like if they return.

As for Walker, his partner and her child, they are trying to find a way to get to Canada.

“We have put all the documents we can in Canada to try to get them there on a tourist visa,” he said about their efforts so far. “Right now, there are no programs available.

“For right now, things are very uncertain for sure. So we are just trying to keep Ukraine on our minds and do what we can to help them out and work on where we can go next, so it’s pretty busy mentally right now.”