WATCH: 'Let them come!' Local Ukrainian-Canadian shares refugee frustration

• Youry Khmelevsky says making refugees travel thousands of kilometres for visas is 'insane'
• He says Canada should be setting up fingerprint agents in western Ukraine

A Kelowna man is making a desperate appeal for the Canadian government to do more to help refugees, including his own family members, trying to flee the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Youry Khmelevsky, a professor and Chair of the Computer Science Department at Okanagan College, who is also a Canadian citizen, says the situation seems to change by the day and Canada has not opened its arms to Ukrainian refugees like European countries have.

For example, Khmelevsky said he and his wife here in Canada are deeply frustrated that Canada expects people to travel massive distances beyond the Ukrainian borders to Warsaw, Poland for example, to get their travel visas. And to make things worse, the main Canadian consular office they’re having to deal with is in London, UK.

It should be noted Canada’s High Commission has waived the need for the biometric facial scan and their latest communications indicated applications would not be refused for non-compliance with requests for biometrics, medical examinations, or passport submission, given the extraordinary circumstances.

But Khmelevsky said it’s difficult to know the rules one day to the next, let alone for those pondering the long trip across one of Ukraine’s borders.

“Don’t ask people to come for fingerprints through several thousands of kilometres under bombs and Russian troops just to collect fingerprints. That is insane,” he told Kelowna10 Tuesday, adding Canada does not guarantee visas will be issued to everyone.

He said his family in Ukraine, like his wife's 80-year-old father, are simply not prepared to make the dangerous trip to Poland, “…to be [possibly] killed on the way,” as he put it.

Khmelevsky also has a five-year-old step grandson whom his parents (who all live in Dnipro, a few hundred kilometres north of the destroyed coastal city of Mariupol) want to get out of the country, but are too afraid to make the hazardous trip.

“We watch the TV news and there are gangs who steal young women and children on the way. It’s frustrating because the Canadian government isn’t supporting us,” he said.

Canada is giving temporary residence for three years to Ukrainian refugees that will allow them to study and work in this country. Also, the federal government is expected to announce further details regarding a family reunification pathway to help bring Ukrainians to Canada on a permanent basis. That would involve working with Ukrainian-Canadian community groups.

But a frustrated Khmelevsky thinks Canada, the seventh most powerful country in the world as he put it, isn’t doing nearly enough.

He thinks Canada should be commissioning people in the more secure western part of Ukraine to help process fingerprints to make the visa application process easier. There are no consular operations running in the country so anyone seeking a visa to come to Canada must travel to the likes of Poland, Germany or Hungary to go through the paperwork.

Khmelevsky has a 62-year-old brother who has left Ukraine (men between 18 and 60 years of age are not allowed to leave) and has arrived in Germany where he is considering seeking refugee status there. That's because he said the bureaucracy involved in trying to work with the Canadian High commission in London was getting him nowhere.

“Canada is proud to accept 7,000 Ukrainians since January; [yet] Poland has accepted 3 million,” Khmelevsky said in frustration. “And Ukrainians don’t need financial support from the Canadian government. Let them come!” he said, his voice breaking with emotion.

Khmelevsky, who has worked at Okanagan College since 2002 and has been a Canadian citizen since 2007, said he remained convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin will not stop his aggression at Ukraine, and he worries Poland and the Baltic nations will be next. He previously spoke with Kelowna10 and said he feared Putin's invasion had set Ukraine back 100 years.

And he said most people are not aware of the atrocities being committed by the Russian forces.

“I never thought this could happen in the 21st century. Russians are not fighting the Ukrainian troopers, they are coming with tanks to villages, and cities and they kill and rape, and they steal everything they can take.”