Communicating with family in a war zone can be a challenge.
Andrii Shymko regularly checks his phone for updates from his mother in Ukraine.
“I’m just getting small texts, and only at night,” he tells CTV News Ottawa. “Every moment, I’m trying to check my phone and see is my message delivered to her because I see it’s not delivered.”
Keeping in touch with his family is difficult. Shymko is unable to phone or video-chat and relies on text messages.
“A couple of days ago, I got a message from my mom that the tower communications will be interrupted because the Russian troops are trying to shut down the cell network in their village,” he says.
His parents, sister, and other family members are in a village called Rudnyts’ke, which is about 60 kilometres east of Ukraine’s capital city. Shymko says Russian troops have now entered that area.
“She’s (mother) writing that everything is okay with them right now, but Russian troops are inside their village right now,” he says. “What I’m seeing on the news is it’s frontline fighting at that point.”
He says he’s hearing disturbing stories from those in the community.
“What I’m seeing is that Russian troops occupied totally, that village and there are some facts of looting. They’re trying to steal food from stores, from local stores, and I know they’re going and checking the houses and taking out mobile phones, that people cannot communicate.”
Shymko put up a sign on his front lawn in Kanata and another on his car, looking for support and donations.
“Trying to bring awareness to Canada, to the people of Canada to understand right now what’s going on in Ukraine.”
