Father Of Two Leaves Partner After Falling For Ukrainian Refugee Who Moved In To Escape War
Love really knows no bounds.
Facebook / Shutterstock A British woman has been left heartbroken after her partner left her for a Ukrainian woman who was taking refuge in their home.
29-year-old security guard Tony Garnett and his 28-year-old partner Lorna decided they wanted to support Ukrainians impacted by war by allowing a Ukrainian refugee into their home.
However, what Lorna did not expect is that this act would bring her 10-year relationship to an end.
Her partner left her for the Ukrainian woman after just 10 days.
Tony quickly fell head-over-heels for 22-year-old Sofiia Karkadym, deciding to run away with her and leave his two children behind.
When Karkadym fled the city of Lviv in Ukraine, she was given refuge by Tony and Lorna, who had taken Tony’s last name by deed poll although the pair had never married.
“As soon as I saw him I fancied him,” Karkadym told The Sun. “It’s been very quick but this is our love story. I know people will think badly of me but it happens. I could see how unhappy Tony was.”
“We’re sorry for the pain we’ve caused but I’ve discovered a connection with Sofiia like I’ve never had before,” Tony said. “We’re planning the rest of our life together.”
Like Karkadym, he also added that the pair’s relationship blossomed so quickly, but that “Sofiia and I know this is right.”
Neither of them had any clue that things would end up this way, especially not Lorna, but sometimes things just happen.
“It began with a simple desire from me to do the right thing and put a roof over the head of someone in need, a man or woman,” he said.
“But it was Sofiia who came into my life and that's something I'll always be thankful for.”
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine intensified, Tony signed up for the Government refugee homing scheme but found that the entire process took far too long and took to social media to try and assist someone in need.
That’s when Tony was introduced to Karkadym on Facebook and offered to become her UK sponsor.
Karkadym, who worked as an IT manager in Ukraine, traveled to Berlin and waited weeks for her UK visa to go through.
On May 4th, she finally flew into Manchester to move in with Tony and Lorna in Bradford, West Yorks, but immediately sparked tensions upon arrival.
Tony had moved their six-year-old daughter into a bunk bed in their three-year-old daughter’s room in order to make room for Karkadym, but it didn’t stop there.
“It was obvious from the start that Sofiia and I just clicked,” Tony revealed. “I speak a little Slovakian and it’s not dissimilar to Ukrainian so I was able to make myself understood to her in her language.”
The pair would spend a lot of time together, watching TV with Ukrainian subtitles and going to the gym to work out together.
Sometimes, they would spend hours talking to each other in his car while they looked over the city after their workouts.
“At home, I realized we were finding excuses to touch and brush against each other, it was very flirtatious but nothing more than that happened at that stage,” he said but admitted that it started to cause problems between him and Lorna.
“She started to get very jealous and was having major arguments with Sofiia, asking her why she was with me all the time and ‘Why are you following him around?’,” he said, until one day Lorna finally broke.
Lorna had never really been keen on the idea of letting a refugee into their home, but she had clearly had enough when one day, she told Karkadym to get out of their home.
“I told Lorna, ‘If she’s going, I’m going’. I knew I couldn’t give her up and all of a sudden it seemed like a no-brainer,” Tony said.
“We both packed our bags and moved into my mum and dad's home together.”
Now, the pair are looking for a trendy city center apartment to move into while they apply for Karkadym’s permanent visa.
“I am so sorry for what Lorna is going through, this was not her fault and it was not about anything she did wrong,” he said. “We never set out to do this, it wasn’t planned and we didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
But of course, hurt they did, as one of Lorna’s friends spoke to The Sun and revealed that “She's absolutely devastated.”
“She was with Tony for ten years and in the space of ten days her family has been torn apart.”
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.