Ukrainians in Ottawa mark third anniversary of Russian invasion

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The now-three-year-old war between Ukraine and Russia has turned into a pivotal struggle between democracy and tyranny, says Olesya Poshyvak, a displaced Ukrainian professor who’s been living in Ottawa for a year. 

“This war is not about Ukraine. This war is about the kind of world we want,” Poshyvak said in an interview.

“Do you want to live in a world where a dictator can invade a peaceful country and destroy it without consequences? Do we want to have a world where aggression wins and democracy loses? Or do we want to stand for justice and freedom?” 

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At Parliament Hill on Sunday, Ottawa-area residents stood alongside Ukrainians as part of a global call to action in support of the war-torn country. Similar rallies took place in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver. 

“We’re commemorating three years of a full-scale invasion,” said Ihor Michalchyshyn, CEO and executive director of the Ukrainian Congress of Canada, the group that organized the rally.

“It’s a terrible, shocking anniversary to be thinking about, and as we’ve seen with the remarks from the American president this week, it looks like Russian disinformation is rampant and false narratives are taking over. We must stand up to false narratives.”

U.S. President Donald Trump last week accused Ukraine of starting the war and described Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “unpopular,” “failing” and a “dictator,” talking points that echoed the narratives spun by the Kremlin. 

In fact, Russia invaded Ukraine, sparking the largest and deadliest conflict in Europe since the Second World War. The violence has resulted in hundreds of thousands of military casualties, tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties, including children, and prompted nearly 6.5 million refugees to leave Ukraine. 

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Poshyvak, 41, is one of the approximately 20,000 displaced Ukrainians estimated by the UCC to be in the Ottawa area. At home in Lviv, a city near the border with Poland, she was a professor of pharmacology and vice-dean of the medical faculty at Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University. 

Poshyvak gave it all up to come to Ottawa with her 14-year-old daughter last winter, in part to give her daughter a better life.

“I wanted her to be in an environment where she can attend school and not sit in the shelters instead of studying, and where she can sleep at night and not have to tell me she’s scared,” she said. 

It was not an easy journey for mother or daughter. Poshyvak was unemployed for eight months and still feels guilt at leaving her parents behind, while her daughter had to navigate a whole new school system. 

“For a teenager, it was very stressful to change your environment, leave your friends and come to a new school in the middle of the year where the friendships are already established and you’re not confident in the language,” Poshyvak said. 

Twelve months later, though, Poshyvak is back at work in the medical administration field and her daughter has landed in a school she likes, with supportive teachers. Although the girl misses her friends and grandparents at home, she’s made some new friends and joined the school’s hockey team as a goalie.

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But their future remains up in the air. They don’t know if they will be able to return to Ukraine or how long they can stay in Canada.

“Even though we’re safe and I’m very grateful to the people of Canada for the support they give to Ukraine,” said Poshyvak, “this is a scary thing because you don’t know what will happen to you. We cannot be sure our future is secure.” 

One problem is Canada’s temporary visa program for displaced Ukrainians, which is set to expire on March 31, along with a complement of free settlement services. The Canada-Ukraine temporary authorization for an emergency travel program, CUAET, allowed Ukrainians to apply to come here and stay for up to three years. 

With the first wave of Ukrainians approaching their third year in Canada, the UCC’s Michalchyshyn said his organization is asking Marc Miller, the federal minister responsible for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, for an automatic extension instead of making people apply for an extension.

Meanwhile, Poshyvak wants to remind Canadians that Ukraine is fighting for world peace. 

“This war is not over, and this fight for Ukraine is a fight for justice, for dignity and for humanity,” she said. “Ukrainians will not stop until we win, not just for ourselves but for every innocent life stolen by this war. We are not victims. We are warriors in every sense of the word. 

“Ukraine will never be broken.”

lsaxberg@postmedia.com

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