There’s no going home to Ukraine for Illya Zhukovskyy.
The apartment he owned in Mykolaiv was demolished by a Russian missile.
A subsequent fire likely would have killed his mother had she not made the decision to leave that morning to pick up supplies at a local pharmacy.
The auto repair business he co-owned is in ruins.
And after 10 years as a professional basketball player, he says his career as a full-time paid athlete is over.
Since Feb. 4, Illya and his partner Anastasiia Biliaieva have been living in Prince George where they intend to stay, safe from the bombs and bullets of invading soldiers intent on destroying their country and its people.
“It is my dream to stay here (in Canada) with my girlfriend to create a new life,” said the 29-year-old Illya.
“This war steal everything from me and my life. I lost my job, my professional career, I lost my apartment, I lost my father. So right now, I’ve lost everything. In Ukraine I have nothing.”
The peace and quiet they’ve found in Prince George living in Wendy and Mel McMillan’s guest house overlooking the Nechako River is as alien to them as the metre-high snow drifts they see in all directions. In Mykolaiv, a Black Sea port city of nearly a half-million in southern Ukraine, snow might fall once a year and it usually melts the same day.
Illya and Anastasiia came to Canada at the suggestion of Vova Pluzhnikov, a former basketball teammate of Illya’s who played six seasons with the UNBC Timberwolves and now works in Prince George as a banking advisor.
As a nine-year-old boy growing up in Mykolaiv, Illya was identified for his potential to play professionally. He worked his way up on the U-16, U-18 and U-20 national teams and went on to play in pro leagues in Spain, Czech Republic and Slovenia. The six-foot-seven small forward was averaging 12.8 points per game for Rivne of the Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague when the invasion happened Feb. 24, a day before the playoffs were to begin.
Anastasiia, a 20-year-old university student majoring in psychology, played two years of pro basketball for the Mykolaiv women’s team in the Ukrainian Higher League. She was also worked as a referee in the pro leagues and in minor basketball. She first met Illya at a practice when they were much younger and they became a couple in 2021 after she officiated one of his games.
Last April, Illya left the relative safety of Rivne, in northwestern Ukraine, to return to Mykolaiv, one of the hot spots of the war, located halfway between Odesa and Kherson. The first few months avoiding the bombs were nervous times for the couple. Martial law was enforced. The city’s water supply pipeline was blown up, there was no heat and only sporadic power, and food was in short supply. Sirens from emergency vehicles were incessant and air raid warnings were frequent, forcing them to take shelter in underground tunnels built during the Second World War.
His mother has since moved to another apartment in the city. His younger sister, from a different mother, is also still in Mykolaiv. Illya’s older sister Julia, a nurse, is in England. Her work contract has ended and she has a Canadian visa and plans to come soon to Prince George.
Illya avoided conscription into the army due to a spinal cord infection diagnosed eight years ago and because of his father’s background as a member of the Ukrainian secret service. His dad died of an apparent heart attack six months ago. Unable to find work in Mykolaiv, Illya moved to Germany in August and Anastasiia joined him in Hamburg two months later, where they applied for and received their Canadian visas.
Anastasiia is completing her university courses online and plans to have her degree finished by next year. She’s looking for administrative work in Prince George and once she’s finished her Ukrainian degree, she will consider masters studies in psychology at UNBC. Both she and Illya speak English fluently, which has made their adjustment to Canadian life that much easier.
Her older sister is in Kyiv, while her parents want to remain in their Mikolaiv home. Her grandfather also refuses to leave, even to seek refuge in the bomb shelter, an everyday occurrence during the first month of the war. Her parents’ neighbourhood has been attacked just twice in the past year and has avoided the frequent shelling that has targeted electrical substations, government buildings, hotels, schools, hospitals and shopping malls in other parts of the city.
“My university is destroyed – every popular university in our city has been destroyed,” said Anastasiia. “Sirens are crazy in our city, for one week they didn’t stop. It was a terrible feeling. I can’t imagine what people felt when the rockets were falling on their building. Every morning we need to check the news just to know that our house is OK today.”
Illya graduated in 2015 with a masters degree in ecology and he’s hoping his Ukrainian credentials will lead to a job in Prince George. He’s had an offer to teach basketball to kids part-time and says he’s prepared to take any job until he finds one that suits his training.
Besides work, their other priority is to get their own vehicle. Their Prince George hosts and their neighbours in the North Nechako subdivision have been helping them out with rides into the city to get groceries and do chores, but they need their own transportation for when they do find work.
“It’s very important for me to get a job because I have a six-year-old sister and my mom in Mikolaiv and it’s my responsibility to help them,” said Illya. “Right now it’s OK for them, it’s safe for this day, but there’s no guarantee. We’re scared about rocket attacks.
“There’s no clean water, its all bottled water. Like all Ukraine, they have problems with power stations and for 24 hours they might have just three hours of power, enough to charge a phone or laptop.”
