Ukrainian mother and son attacked, robbed say they expected to be safe in Winnipeg after fleeing war
Viktoria Sokolova said her 14-year-old son spent 11 hours in surgery and is starting to walk and talk again
WARNING: This story contains graphic images and details of violence:
A teenage boy is recovering in hospital after he and his mother were violently attacked and robbed in their Elmwood-East Kildonan neighborhood.
Viktoria Sokolova and her 14-year-old son are Ukrainian newcomers who have been living in Winnipeg for the last 10 months.
On the afternoon of Aug. 3, Sokolova's son met her at the bus stop on Nairn Avenue and Kent Road. As they were walking home, two men approached them on bikes, and asked if they were from Ukraine or Russia.
"He started talking too fast, and I said, 'I don't speak English, I just learned the language'," Sokolova told CBC through the aid of an interpreter.
"They started to ask for money, the only word I could understand was money,"
Sokolova told the men she didn't have any money, and started to walk home with her son, but the two men returned.
"Those two guys when we started walking home, they [were] just behind us, hit us on the head, behind my ear."
Sokolova and her son were attacked with a baseball bat, knocked unconscious, and robbed. When Sokolova came to, her son was still unresponsive. She said a witness called the police, and the two were sent to hospital, with her son in unstable condition.
"My son was lying [in bed] for three days … the doctor, they scanned the head and the jaw. They had to [have] surgery right away. The surgery took 11 hours," explained Sokolova, adding she also needed stitches behind her ear.
Sokolova said her son is starting to recover, he's talking again, and slowly starting to walk.
Winnipeg police said they were called at 5:45 p.m. on Aug. 3 to a report of a robbery in the 900 block of McCalman Avenue, where they found Sokolova and her son, who they said was suffering from serious upper-body injuries.
Police later located and arrested the two suspects in the 1600 block of Regent Avenue West. They said the incident was random, and the victims and suspects weren't known to each other.
The two men were in their 20s and face a number of charges between the two of them, including robbery, assault, uttering threats and failing to comply with the conditions of a warrant.
This attack comes less than eight months after another incident where a Ukrainian newcomer was stabbed and killed on his way to work at the corner of Talbot Avenue and Watt Street, several blocks from where Sokolova was attacked.
Joanne Lewandosky, the president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress in Manitoba, said Sokolova and her son fled war-torn city of Mariupol to seek refuge in Winnipeg.
"She had to leave her home, she had to go with her child and go to a more safe place."
Lewandosky said the devastation in Mariupol left Sokolova with nowhere else to go.
"The trauma continues. The trauma was when they had to pick up and go. Then she comes here thinking, 'Oh a safe haven', well it wasn't as safe as she assumed it would be, so we're going to definitely step up for her."
Lewandosky said UCC Manitoba will support Sokolova by providing transport, food, and whatever else she needs while she works through this traumatic experience, as well as adjusting to a new country.
Sokolova believes her son will recover from his injuries, but said the attack will have a lasting effect on the two.
"For now my son has trauma, he's afraid to go out on his own, even me, I'm afraid to walk alone," she said.
"We just lived [through] a war, and we saw all the missiles, and the best situation happened to us [immigrating here], and we expected to be safe."
