But Swan – the preferred, English-speaking version of his original surname, Lebedyntsev – swore his citizenship through Zoom from a rented room in western Ukraine, where he was not allowed to leave the country with his fiancée to return home. in Vancouver.
The reason is disappointingly bureaucratic: Due to the ongoing Russian invasion, Swan, 27, was unable to obtain the physical documents needed to prove his citizenship and avoid military service. Even if he can get them, he is not sure it will be his ticket.
I try to focus on things I can contribute.- Illya Swan
“I’m still stuck here until the departure rules change,” Swan told CBC from the Zakarpattia region of Ukraine, where he has lived with his fiancée and family since he left Kyiv late last month. shortly after the onset of the invasion.
The area, about 800 kilometers west of the capital and 250 kilometers southwest of Lviv, borders Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, and has so far escaped the barbarity that has swept other parts of the country.
Swan believes that far from the fighting, if Russian troops were advancing in the area, there would be enough warning for his fiancée, Lisa Piatko, 25, her mother, grandmother and 16-year-old brother to cross the border. .
A young Canadian citizen is stuck in Ukraine and says he can be summoned
Illya Swan became a Canadian citizen while he was in Ukraine with his fiancée, but he does not have the documents to prove it. Even if he escapes to safety, he says he should stay behind, because male citizens aged 18 to 60 are not allowed to leave the country. 1:39
“It’s pretty safe, because you have time to plan if that’s going to happen,” Swan said, adding that he and Piatco’s father would have no choice but to stay behind to fight if it came to that.
“If it gets so bad, I would rather have a gun, honestly.”
He arrived in Canada 10 years ago
Swan arrived in Canada on a student visa in 2012, studying business at Langara College in Vancouver. He became a permanent resident in 2018 and now works for CoinPayments, a company that helps facilitate cryptocurrency transactions. Piatko, a permanent resident of Canada, designs social media content for the same company.
Swan began his Canadian citizenship application in September 2020 and passed the citizenship test last year. All that was left was to take his oath, but despite his repeated efforts to complete the process, this final step was not taken.
They were already working remotely due to the pandemic, so the couple decided to take the opportunity to travel back to Ukraine in December to see their families. Both entered the country with their Ukrainian passports, planning an extended visit.
Swan, who is also a photographer, took this picture during the family’s escape from Kyiv on February 25. (Illya Swan)
They were living with Piatko’s parents in their top-floor apartment in Kyiv when the invasion began on February 24. Early the next morning, from the relative security of a downstairs apartment, they heard the first explosions.
“It was then that everyone was scared and Lisa’s family decided to leave town,” Swan said.
They were not the only residents of Kiev who made this decision. Swan said the family only needed four hours to reach the highway leading out of town and three days to reach Zakarpattia. As they drove west, Swan said, columns of Ukrainian military vehicles passed in the opposite direction.
At one point, air raid sirens forced the convoy to stop and people to leave their vehicles and be covered under an overtaking.
People fleeing Kyiv are crammed into an underground passage after air raid sirens exploded. A few minutes later, they returned to their cars to continue their slow journey west. (Illya Swan)
Involved in a war zone
Swan shares the cost of their stay, which he calls “comfortable but expensive”, with Piatco’s parents. His father lives in their hometown west of Kiev, where he helps build defense and care for Swan’s grandparents. Swan’s mother, who spent about a week in Zakarpattia, has now taken her youngest son to the Czech Republic to go to school.
Two weeks ago, despite the invasion, Swan and Piatko got engaged. But their common future is anything but certain.
Piatko and Swan fear that if Russian forces approach Zakapatya, he may have to leave as well. (Illya Swan)
At the same time, Swan stepped up his efforts to finalize his Canadian citizenship. With the help of his girlfriend Olenka Reshitnyk-Bastian, a volunteer coordinator with the Ottawa branch of the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress, she reached out to Ottawa immigration lawyer Jacqueline Bonisteel, who agreed to take on the pro bono case.
Through her contacts, Bonisteel was able to arrange Swan’s swearing-in ceremony within a few days and on March 5 she became a Canadian citizen.
When he started the process 16 months earlier, Swan said he originally planned to fly his family to Vancouver for the ceremony. Instead, it took place via the Internet in a country under siege.
“I’m not going to lie, it was a bit anti-climatic,” he said.
Waiting for documents
Nor did his remote ceremony provide the signed documents needed to prove his citizenship to Ukrainian officials. Swan said he followed up with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) through their Ukraine hotline, but was unable to obtain a single digital copy of his citizenship certificate.
“The reality is that they have no idea what to do,” said Swan, who praised the IRCC for devoting additional resources to the situation in Ukraine, although it was disappointed with the response to his case.
Bonisteel now has the certificate, but has no clear way to transfer it to Swan because the war closed most delivery channels. They are now working on a way to send the certificate to Swan’s mother in the Czech Republic, who will then have to find a way to deliver it to him in Ukraine.
“It’s another thing to say you are a citizen. It’s another thing to have the real documentation to get a passport or travel document of some kind and use it to leave Ukraine,” said Bonisteel, chief lawyer for her office. Ottawa. Corporate Immigration Law Office.
Children play on a treadmill during an air raid warning. (Illya Swan)
“The IRCC has introduced these great special measures that are really impressive to us and really sweeping and unprecedented from what we have seen in crisis situations, but the logistical issues are huge. And so this is just one example of that,” Bonisteel said. .
Bonistel said Swann now has the right to add his name to a state register of Canadians living in Ukraine, but it is unclear how this will help him.
CBC News contacted the IRCC on Friday morning for more information on Swan’s case, but was told it would be Monday before the department could respond.
“More useful” with a job than with a gun
Even with the certificate, it is not clear whether he would be allowed to leave the country, whose constitution does not recognize dual citizenship. Nor would it guarantee him exemption from military service if and when he is called up as a Ukrainian citizen.
“I feel divided, but I feel divided just being here [in Zakarpattia], so it does not matter to me in terms of the moral perspective of being here or 100 km west across the border. “It would not change much,” Swan said.
A family party in Ukraine, before the Russians enter. (Illya Swan)
He feels that his ongoing financial contributions, both to Ukraine’s defense and to his family, are far more effective than any military role he can play.
“I try to focus on the things I can contribute and I know you can train in battles and other things, but I feel that my family depends on me,” he said. “So I hope all this is convincing [Ukrainian officials] that I am more useful with a Canadian job, to work, than with a weapon, without military experience “.
For now, the young couple remains together in the relative security of western Ukraine, but know that any day the winds of war could turn in their direction and separate them.
