'I can sleep at night': Windsor woman brings parents, grandmother to Canada from Ukraine

It's been a whirlwind few days for Petrenko family.

Windsor residentAnastasia Petrenko has brought her mother and father and her 87-year-old grandmotherEkaterina, from the Ukranian city of Kryvyi Rih to Canada to stay with her, while the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues.

"She feels like she's in a movie,"Olga Petrenkotold CBC News, her words translated by her daugher Anastasia. "She doesn't believe that she's already in Canada, because everything happened so fast."

Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.Anastasia Petrenkosaid her parents heard explosions and saw black smoke, then moved toEkaterina's apartment, farther away from the conflict, where they stayed for two days.

"I insisted of them to move away completely, because more news were coming and I saw that other cities got occupied, and that I might have lost a connection with them," Anastasia said. "I just insisted for them to move while their road to the west was open."

"Russians were going and cutting off roads," she said. "It was important to be fast, to move while you can."

Anastasia said while she wishes circumstances were different, she's happy her family is in Canada now, where they'll be safe.

"I can sleep at night now," she said. "And they can, I hope."

She said, however, there are currently no financial support programs for Ukranians who come to Canada during the war. There is some support from their church, and family, but her mother and father will likely need to find work here.

"For them to start a new life, they need housing, and the government doesn't provide [housing]," she said. "They need health care, and there's no public health care for them available now."

"Maybe the government will announce something."