Lovelorn American lost in Ukraine 'wants to return'

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A broken-hearted former US governor candidate who was found dishevelled, broke and homeless in Ukraine is going back home to America but says he wants to return to search again for love.

Cary Dolego, 53, a minor candidate in gubernatorial elections in the US state of Arizona in 2010, said he had hoped to find love in Ukraine but the girl who agreed to marry him never showed up.

The case of Dolego, who was found sleeping rough around the train station in the western Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi near the Romanian border, has aroused global attention for its bizarre nature but also highlighted the extent of "marriage tourism" in the country.

Dolego, a divorced father of three from Queen Creek, Arizona, said he had to leave the country but he would return.

"I am going to come back," he said, adding that Ukrainians were "cordial and nice and hospitable." He added he did not want to leave, saying a fellow foreigner told him not to give up.

"He said: 'Don't worry about this. I'd spent the last four years looking for my Ukrainian, Slavic lady and I've finally found her. So don't worry about this, just keep persevering and it will all happen for you.'"

Dolego came to Ukraine in May after selling his house, car, truck and motorcycle.

"I came with the idea that it'd be a permanent move. When I do something, I make sure I do it completely."

Dolego, who in his Facebook account describes himself as a single guy "interested in women," spent several months touring the ex-Soviet country and meeting women.

Somewhere along the way he found himself without money and living in a park in the southern city of Simferopol.

"I was literally sleeping in a park. Some of the bushes are overgrown in quite a few areas in the park so there's plenty of places to sleep."

He said he could have stayed in the park for much longer but he needed to travel to the west Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi near the Carpathian mountains to meet Yulia, a local woman who he said had agreed to marry him.

"My hope was to eventually find Yulia and make contact with her," he said, speaking from Chernivtsi, the home town of Hollywood actress and co-star in the film Black Swan Mila Kunis.

"I was hoping that we'd get married and I'd apply for a registration number in Kiev which would allow me to stay in Chernivtsi. We can work on our relationship and get married and everything else."

Yulia never showed up, said Dolego, speaking days after aid workers found him sitting on the ground at the railway station with several suitcases and a laptop and looking at the trains.

He was hospitalised with suspected pneumonia but has recovered and was now preparing to go back to the United States.

"Things are so bad in the US, in Arizona, that you can purchase a house for less than $1,000," Dolego said.

The website of the office of the secretary of state of Arizona lists Cary Dolego of Queen Creek, Arizona, as a write-in candidate for the 2010 elections for governor of the state.