A team from the Saskatchewan government has arrived back from meeting with Ukrainian refugees in Germany to help prepare them to come to Canada..The representatives, led by Terry Dennis, the Saskatchewan-Ukraine relations legislative secretary, met with the refugees in Germany who left Ukraine after the Russians invaded..Dennis shared the story of Natalia, who took a 12-hour train ride from Slovakia to tell her story of fleeing with her family, including three children..“She (Natalia) works at the Kyiv train station,” Dennis shared with reporters. .“Her story of fleeing with her three kids and her husband and the continued work that she does in the Metro there and thousands of displaced people who sleep in there every night just to avoid bombings and the shootings, quite emotional.”.“For her to hop on a train from Slovakia and take a 12-hour trip just to meet with us and tell the story.”.Given the many Ukrainians who already live in Saskatchewan, the provincial government has opened the province to as many refugees who want to come..Dennis and his group met with Canadian government embassy officials to find out how the visa process was moving along and to offer help..“We met with them and offered some help, whatever we could do to help speed up the process of getting Ukrainians out of that country and into Canada and possibly into Saskatchewan with all the connections we have with all the residents that we have here,” said Dennis..“It’s taking a little longer than we would hope. We’re just offering our help as the Saskatchewan government to see what we can do to help them out and even have people on the ground to help them speed up the process.”.When reporters asked Dennis whether the refugees want to come temporarily or permanently, he could not give an answer..“A lot of them, I think, want to just find a place to live temporarily. Some of them are ready to come (permanently),” said Dennis..“I couldn’t really give you a number on that right now. We’re ready to welcome whatever we can get over here.”.Chris Oldcorn is a Western Standard Reporter based in Regina.,coldcorn@westernstandard.news,Twitter: @chrisoldcorn,.Parler: @chrisoldcorn
