A lobster fisherman from southwestern Nova Scotia, who has been trying to drive Ukrainians displaced by war to safety, has escaped a Ukrainian city under siege on foot.
Lex Brukovskiy spoke with CTV News from western Ukraine Wednesday. On the weekend, he was hiding in a bomb shelter in Chernihiv, unable to leave with a van full of people desperate to get shuttled to safety.
The last bridge out had been bombed, and other were roads cut off.
Five or six days passed and Brukovskiy said he felt useless waiting in the bomb shelter, where he had to take from others to feed himself.
He and the evacuation team he entered Chernihiv with left their vans behind and set off on foot.
“We took a huge risk going through where we went,” he said. “Where I passed, there were still bodies there that people can’t get to.”
Brukovskiy didn’t want to share specific details of the route his team took, but he did say it’s hardly worth the risk, and would be very dangerous for children to escape that way.
“I think right now in the situation that they’re in, they’re probably safer in a bomb shelter than doing what I did to leave the city,” said Brukovskiy.
Don Bowser is an international law enforcement and security advisor from New Brunswick. He’s been crowdfunding non-lethal military equipment and supplying it to Ukraine.
He said the need for items like bulletproof vests, helmets and night vision equipment is overwhelming.
He connected with Brukovskiy before he left for Chernihiv to try to get him a bulletproof vest. When Bowser learned the Nova Scotian fisherman was trapped in the city, the well-connected New Brunswicker called his friend, the former governor of the Chernihiv region.
“I explained the situation and she managed to get a hold of the local authorities who then sent in a team to get Lex out,” Bowser said. “He’s a very brave guy I have to say."
A plan was hatched to take Brukovskiy out one route but Brukowskiy said that changed last minute when his team found another way.
Before this moment, Brukovskiy had attempted to leave Chernihiv four times by van. Each time, he was stopped by shelling. Even a quick drive through the city for supplies meant jumping out of the van three times to avoid shelling.
“Walking down the street is extremely dangerous there,” he said. “Unless you’re in a bomb shelter, you just never know where the shelling is going to come from and where it’s going to hit.”
Much of Chernihiv is without running water and power, including a hospital where Brukovskiy said more than 40 people need surgery. Taking the patients to another city is not an option.
“The situation is very critical,” he said.
He’s still in contact with the evacuees he was assigned to bring to safety and hopes to be able to help from where he is now and return soon to get them out.
“We’re still trying to deliver aid,” he said. “And we’re still trying to get the people out. We’re working on it non-stop, trying to find corridors and trying to find ways to get people out without them getting hurt or killed. “
Brukovskiy also wants the world to do more to help Ukraine.
He was born in Ukraine and still has family there. After Russia invaded, he returned to volunteer as a driver to deliver aid and move people out of danger.
“I feel like at least if NATO or somebody could close the skies to at least stop the air raids,” he said.
He’s been collecting donations online in order to buy supplies that are needed.
Brukovskiy said a girls’ hockey team in Nova Scotia organized a game to raise money to send to Ukraine.
“I always share that with people here to show them that people around the world care and that they’re with us, that they’re with Ukraine.”
