Once more defending her actions, a Ukrainian refugee who fled the country with her adopted UK sponsor while staying with his family claims that she “didn’t steal anyone” and that their connection is “real and wonderful.”
At the beginning of May, Sofiia Karkadym, 22, left Lviv and moved in with Tony Garnett, 29, his wife Lorna, and their two children in Bradford.
But after just ten days, Mr. Garnett had already fallen in love with his new visitor and had moved in with her at his parents’ house, leaving his partner for her.
Mr. Garnett claimed that he has fallen in love and wants to be with Miss Karkadym forever.
Miss Karkadym outlined what she believed to be a few relevant facts in a post on her Instagram account.
On Mr Garnett leaving his wife, she it was the ‘conscious and considered decision of a 29-year-old man who has the right to fall in love.’
She again denied that she ‘stole’ anyone and attacked the press coverage of the story which was ‘clearly exaggerated and written in such a way as to be as dramatic as possible.’
‘Finally, I decided to write a post about world-famous recent events,’ the Ukrainian IT manager wrote.
‘The first thing I want to say is that I did not steal anyone from the family. It was his conscious and considered decision, the decision of a 29-year-old man who has the right to fall in love, has the right to be happy and has the right to choose who to be with.’
‘The second thing I want to cover is the concept of the ‘yellow press’. Do you really think that someone can be abducted from a happy family in 10 days?
‘Why so much attention to my story, if it is clearly exaggerated and written in such a way as to be as dramatic as possible?
‘Anthony and I are fine.
‘Therefore, those who supported me from the very beginning and knew that behind any of my actions there is something real and wonderful – thank you. The rest – you will be disappointed in your judgements ;)’
Miss Karkadym had previously insisted she was not to blame for the breakdown of her sponsors’ relationship, telling The Sun: ‘That never crossed my mind. I liked the family. I spent a lot of time with Lorna and I tried to help her. But she was two-faced.
‘Her constant suspicions, the tension, it just pushed me and Tony closer together.
‘She created this situation by constantly suggesting something was going on when it wasn’t. So this is her fault.’
Jilted mother Lorna Garnett said she was left heartbroken after her husband decided to leave her for their guest.
Speaking to the Sun on Sunday, Mrs Garnett said she believes Miss Karkadym ‘set her sights on Anthony from the start, decided she wanted him and she took him’.
She added: ‘She didn’t care about the devastation that was left behind. Everything I knew has been turned on its head in the space of two weeks.’
Mrs Garnett told the newspaper she had reservations about the scheme but felt it was the right thing to do after seeing the ‘terrifying’ situation in Ukraine on the news.
She said: ‘I decided it was the right thing to do to put a roof over someone’s head and help them when they were in desperate need.
‘And this is how Sofiia has repaid me for giving her a home.’
Tony told The Sun that he “wanted to do the right thing” and that Miss Karkadym was the first person to contact him on a Facebook page where he offered to house a refugee under the Government’s program. The family had taken Miss Karkadym in as part of their effort to help Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion.
Miss Karkadym, an IT manager, arrived in Manchester on May 4 after spending weeks in Berlin awaiting the approval of her UK visa.
According to Mr. Garnett, he and his visitor hit it off right away. However, while his six- and three-year-old daughters warmed up to her, his partner of ten years did not.
Since Slovakian and Ukrainian are mutually comprehensible, Mr. Garnett would converse with his future lover while she spoke Ukrainian.
His wife, however, was left in the dark about what they were discussing.
‘We were getting on brilliantly but at that time it was no more than that — although I can see why Lorna started to feel jealous and resentful of her,’ Mr Garnett said.
As the days passed Miss Karkadym would join Mr Garnett at the gym and they would talk in his car, while at home they grew physically closer.
‘At home I realised 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.
‘Although it was fairly innocent it was causing arguments. I can understand that. When I got in at night Sofiia would be the one who had made a meal for me to try.’
As the pair got closer and closer, his wife became ‘very jealous’ Mr Garnett says, and began to question why Miss Karkadym was following him around all the time.
‘The atmosphere was getting really bad and Sofiia told me she didn’t know whether she could continue to live with us under these circumstances,’ he said.
‘Lorna was never that enthusiastic about having a refugee in our home because it meant the girls had to move into one room.’
Things came to a head after an explosive row between the women left Miss Karkadym in tears and saying she no longer felt like she could live in the same house.
Mr Garnett said ‘something inside me clicked’ and he told his wife ‘If she’s going, I’m going’.
The couple immediately packed their belongings and moved in with his mother and father, but they are still looking for a place to live.
Tony expresses regret and claims Lorna is not to blame for their 10-year relationship ending in just 10 days.
‘I am so sorry for what Lorna is going through, this was not her fault and it was not about anything she did wrong.
‘We never set out to do this, it wasn’t planned and we didn’t mean to hurt anyone.’
