A retired 91原创 mining geologist is sending aid to get his extended family out of the Ukraine to safe countries ahead of the Russian invasion.

Walter Stunder said that four relatives have already headed to Poland, another has gone to Romania, and he鈥檚 willing to help some others, but they haven鈥檛 made up their minds to leave yet, or are determined to stay.

鈥淭o see what鈥檚 happening there right now, I find it very disgusting, to put it mildly,鈥� Stunder said of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A diamond geologist, Stunder鈥檚 parents were of Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, and German descent. He speaks both Russian and Ukrainian, and has family in both countries, mostly second and third cousins. His father had a Polish passport, but emigrated to Canada in the 1920s from Crimea.

After doing some geology work in the Soviet Union, in 1992 Stunder headed to the newly independent Ukraine, where he knew there were kimberlite deposits, which can contain diamonds.

He ran North Star Diamonds, with an office in Donetsk, in a building that had once been the headquarters of the local Communist Party.

鈥淪ome of my office furniture is still there,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd I鈥檓 not going to pick it up.鈥�

While he travelled the Ukraine as a geologist, he visited with family, who called him 鈥淯ncle,鈥� Stunder said, although most of them are cousins to one degree or another. For the most part, he was known by a Ukrainian version of his name, going by Volodimir Hehorovitch, with the second part being a patronymic, based on his father鈥檚 name.

Stunder has helped his relatives out financially over the years, including painting the house his father built in 1923, which he said didn鈥檛 get a second coat of paint until 1994.

When the Russian invasion came, he helped relatives out with finances to get to the border.

鈥淪he had a car, but she didn鈥檛 have enough for the tires,鈥� he said of one cousin. He sent her cash for tires and gas, and she鈥檚 made it to Romania, where she and her two children, both under 10 years old, are now in a refugee camp, said Stunder.

Her husband couldn鈥檛 leave 鈥� the Ukrainian government has ordered all men 18 to 60 years old to stay in the country to help defend it from the invasion.

Another group of four relatives made it to the Polish border.

Some, he said, are staying, including a pair of sisters in their 70s.

Their parents lived through the Holodomor, the genocide by famine under Stalin in the 1930s, they lived through the Soviet Union, and they don鈥檛 want to leave, he said. They say that they鈥檙e 鈥渞eady to die.鈥�

They have about five to six days worth of food, and the only resupply in their area is coming from a German faith-based charity.

鈥淚鈥檓 quite concerned,鈥� said Stunder.

Another cousin, a school teacher in Vinnitsya, isn鈥檛 sure yet if she wants to leave.

Stunder said that on Monday, she went to her job at the school, where students were making face masks for soldiers. Guns and ammunition were being handed out in the neighbourhood.

He speaks with affection of Ukraine and his time there, the beauty of Donetsk, a city he said was known for three things 鈥� coal, roses, and beautiful women.

鈥淭he roses there, they grow 10 feet high,鈥� he said.

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Ukraine has suffered under repeated invasions over the centuries, starting with the Mongol invasions in the 13th century, and more recently by corrupt government, which led to the Maidan Revolution in 2014, and the ousting of a pro-Russian president.

But Stunder said he had been heartened recently by the election of President Volodymyr Zelensky and a parliament Stunder thought was good for the country. He said despite his start as a comedian, Zelensky is the most serious president Ukraine has had.

Now it鈥檚 being invaded and bombed.

鈥淚t tears me apart to see any country get torn apart that way,鈥� he said.

Stunder has a tremendous affection for Ukraine, and his 91原创 City apartment has keepsakes and photos from his many years in the country, including a Ukrainian flag, and a bandura.

His playing of the Ukrainian stringed instrument is a bit rusty, but he can still sing in Ukrainian. He isn鈥檛 sure if he鈥檒l be able to visit the country again, but he would like to.

Stunder said, however, he isn鈥檛 likely to visit Russia again.