\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
![\"Mike](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4114655_web1_UkranianSearch_MikeSudoma_April3_2026-6.JPG\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
Mike Sudoma \/ Free Press<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At the former location of the Southwood Gold and Country Club, Valeriia Barova looks for clues as to the whereabouts of Anatolii Ischenko.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very cold day, it was -35 C, feels like -48 C, and that\u2019s why we are concerned because his phone was not responding starting from 2:30 p.m.,\u201d said Oksana Burchak, who helped organize Friday\u2019s search.<\/p>\n
Ishchenko came to Canada alone in 2022, among thousands of Ukrainians displaced after Russia\u2019s invasion of their homeland. He still has family in Ukraine, including his parents and brother, while some relatives have moved to California.<\/p>\n
Burchak, with the group Girls from Ukrainian Moms in Winnipeg, said Ishchenko had lost his job at Motor Coach Industries Ltd. just days before he went missing and had sought psychological help.<\/p>\n
His friend, Serhii Zadorozhniak, who lived in the same apartment building near Pembina Highway north of Abinojii Mikanah, said Ishchenko became increasingly isolated about a year earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething happened with him, I don\u2019t know what,\u201d Zadorozhniak said, adding that Ishchenko stopped speaking with him. \u201cBut he was a good guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zadorozhniak joined the search party, holding on to hope.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe he\u2019s hiding somewhere, maybe he\u2019s still alive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t SUPPLIED<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Anatolii Ishchenko, 30, has been missing since Jan. 22.<\/p>\n Burchak said she takes a more measured view, given how long Ishchenko has been missing.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not optimistic. I\u2019m realistic,\u201d she said. \u201cI really hope that we will find him and a miracle will happen, that we will find him alive, somewhere in the downtown area or somebody picked him up from the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n Burchak said Ishchenko had been planning to travel to the United States, but all of his documents, including his passport, were found in his apartment after his disappearance.<\/p>\n Yevgeniya Tatarenko, another organizer of the search, said they just want to bring Ishchenko home to his mother back in Ukraine.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a mom, too,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine their mom being in Ukraine, and just going through this.\u201d<\/p>\n Buffalo Stone Man, also known as Darryl Taylor, led a prayer song before the search began. He\u2019s known Tatarenko for a decade now, and he adopted her as his \u201csoul daughter\u201d after Tatarenko\u2019s father died four years ago.<\/p>\n Taylor said Friday\u2019s search, which was slated to last until 6 p.m., checks off one of the boxes.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t SUPPLIED<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Serhii Zadorozhniak, a former neighbour of Ishchenko, was keeping his thoughts positive prior to searching for his friend Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got a whole family pondering and wondering, \u2018Where is he?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAs Indigenous people, we have been going through this for many generations. So we understand what they\u2019re going through. Ultimately, we have to open our arms and say to the Ukrainian people, that you\u2019re welcome to our territory, and we want to support your initiative, because we know what you\u2019re going through.\u201d<\/p>\n Burchak, who said they found an iPhone case halfway through the search that resembled that of Ishchenko\u2019s, said this is not her first search.<\/p>\n She helped organize two in 2024, including for Nikita Boiarskyi, 18, who was found dead at Niakwa Country Club in May 2024. Burchak said her daughter went to school with Boiarskyi. Boiarskyi, like Ishchenko, fled Ukraine with this family in 2022.<\/p>\n The second came shortly after. Burchak said she was speaking with the medical examiner about the Boiarskyi\u2019s death when she learned that another person they had been searching for was already there.<\/p>\n She said many Ukrainians struggle with the stress of integrating into Canadian society, including learning English.<\/p>\n When they call for emergency help, she said, they are often taken to hospital but not seen right away due to the province\u2019s \u201coverloaded\u201d health-care system. Because they may appear physically well, they are not always treated as high-priority patients.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, we\u2019ve had quite a few such cases,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t SUPPLIED<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Searchers used specific search points in Google Maps to direct the search.<\/p>\n The search grid was mapped by drawing a line from the hospital to Ishchenko\u2019s home. Friday\u2019s effort focused on the former Southwood golf course, with searchers using an app to track which areas had been covered.<\/p>\n A group had already searched St. Vital Park for several days. With the snow beginning to melt, more ground could be surveyed. On Friday, the shelter by the duck pond served as a home base.<\/p>\n Volunteers arrived to a warm lunch of borscht and buns, were organized into teams, and then set out to cover their assigned areas.<\/p>\n Victor Lagasse, Trevor Fulford and Dale Lui\u2014all of whom live nearby\u2014heard about the search through a post on Reddit\u2019s Winnipeg subreddit.<\/p>\n \u201cI live just by Victoria Hospital now,\u201d Fulford said, adding that he grew up just down the street from St. Vital Park. I know the park like the back of my hand. I just felt compelled to come out and do anything that I possibly could to help.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t Lui, Fulford\u2019s brother-in-law, said he\u2019d had search and rescue experience during his time in the military.<\/p>\n \u201cNaturally, you hope that you can find the people safe and sound, but you have to treat the tasks with some sense of sombreness and seriousness,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd just all you can do is the best you can in the situation. You don\u2019t try to think too hard. You\u2019re just trying to get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t SUPPLIED<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Missing posters for Anatolii Ishchenko on a table inside of the warming hut at the St Vital Park Duck Pond Friday.<\/p>\n Lagasse said the three hunt and fish together a lot, and hope their experience \u201cplaying in the woods,\u201d as he put it, could help.<\/p>\n \u201cJust help the community out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Scott Billeck Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade\u2019s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.\u00a0 Read more about Scott<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Reporter
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n