A Ukrainian couple who moved to Winnipeg in 2022 is grieving after the body of their son was found at a city golf course.
The Winnipeg Police Service confirmed the body found at Niakwa Country Club Wednesday was Nikita Boiarskyi, 18. No foul play is suspected. Police declined to comment further, citing requests for privacy from the family.
According to Boiarskyi’s parents, Oleksandr and Iryna Boiarskyi, their son told them he would be stepping out for five minutes on May 21 and never returned home.
Nikita Boiarskyi, 18, was found dead. (Facebook)
“Around the evening … we realized that something bad happened, because it was unusual for him to be away so long and (we) went to police,” Oleksandr Boiarsky said through Oksana Burchak, a family friend who translated from Ukrainian.
The parents said they have yet to see the body, but police confirmed it was him through his tattoos and clothing.
The family is hoping for more information on how their son died.
“We just want to know what exactly happened,” Burchak said.
A GoFundMe has been started to help the family cover the costs of Boiarskyi’s funeral.
The Boiarskyi family fled Ukraine to escape the war after the Russian invasion in February 2022. Most newcomers arriving in Winnipeg as teenagers have a unique set of mental struggles, Burchak said.
“Their childhood is done, and they, in most cases, start struggling with it, because they struggle with language barrier, they’re struggling with the new environment, they’re struggling with more family duties,” she said. “It’s tough.”
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas
Reporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.