1st day of school for 6 Ukrainian hockey players in Quebec City

Six young Ukrainian athletes proudly donned the green shirts of their new school as they hit the books in Quebec City for the first time Friday morning.

Maksym Shtepa, Artem Kovalenko, Mykyta Staskevych, Ehor Kosenko, Matvi Kulish and Ehor Pyshalko captured the hearts of Canadians at the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament in February.

They decided to make Quebec City their temporary home and eventually enrolled at St. Patrick's high school to be part of its hockey program. Recently, the six teens received special temporary visas allowing them to study and play hockey in Quebec City until it is safe for them to return home.

Maksym was still riding the high he got from meeting his president and hero Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Parliament Hill earlier this week, which he said was "a dream." A photo of Maksym, Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hangs in one of the school's classrooms.

Now Maksym is excited to study, play hockey and "start out life, same as the guys on our team," he said, adding that he got a warm welcome from them.

"I'm really happy that we are starting school and are meeting a lot of people," he said. "It's what we wanted."

"I was at [the Vidéotron Centre] last week and the emotions I felt again that I'm there, it was cool," he said.

But, the journey here wasn't easy — the six Ukrainians only received authorization to study from the Education Ministry a month after they had arrived.

Sean Bérubé — the volunteer who helped organize their move — says the ministry was very helpful, but the process took longer than expected because he had to prepare a lot of paperwork and then wait for its approval.

Because the boys didn't yet have approval to study, they couldn't play hockey with the school