The British father who ran off with a Ukrainian refugee after she moved in with him and his partner has said he hopes to marry her.
Tony Garnett also says he and Sofiia Karkadym are planning to have children together after she convinced him to try to reverse a vasectomy he underwent after having two children with ex.
The 29-year-old guard left his former partner Lorna and moved with Sofiia into a rented house in Bradford, West Yorkshire, 10 days after arriving in the UK from a war-torn Ukraine†
Speak with MailOnlinehe said, “I want to propose to this beautiful lady.”
Sofiia added: ‘We plan our lives together. I want to be a mother. I want to have children.
“I’m a young woman so it can wait a few years and I hope Tony can reverse his vasectomy so we can be a family together.”
Despite only knowing each other for two months, the couple plans to visit Sofia’s family in Ukraine so Tony can ask her parents for her hand.
Tony said, “I want to say that out of Putin’s evil came something very good for me and her.”
He said he will make a formal proposal once their situation is more stable, adding: “I want to make it special, so we’ll just wait until we find a suitable place to live where we can settle.”
Tony described the response to their link as ‘crazy’, saying, ‘I racked up 5,000 Instagram followers yesterday and she gained 7,000 for no reason at all.
‘People are fascinated by us.’
Sofiia said: ‘The news about Tony and me has reached Ukraine and my family called me and said they were very upset and at one point they said they would never talk to me again.
“But I explained to them that Tony wasn’t married and that we fell in love innocently and this is permanent.
“I was angry that my family read the stories of a Ukrainian girl going to Britain and stealing someone’s husband.
“I’m afraid the Russians will use this as propaganda to show that the Ukrainians are causing trouble everywhere.”
Tony is now Sofia’s caretaker after she developed an eye problem.
He said: “Sofiia got an infection when she was in Germany and it got really bad when she got to Manchester Airport. She had surgery on it a few weeks ago.
“She can only partially see through it at the moment and that’s a bit worrisome. But the doctors have said it will take six months for it to heal properly.
“She just got a social security number that helps with the treatment.”
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