Saturday marked two years since Russian troops invaded Ukraine.
As the war continues, the Ukrainian National Federation of Canada’s Barrie and Simcoe County branch was out in force at Barrie City Hall.
About 100 people braved cold temperatures, waved flags in the courtyard and listened to speeches from local politicians.
Oksana Perkhach was in Lviv, Ukraine, when the Russians invaded but was able to come to Canada in May 2022 after waiting in Poland for a month with her three children — two daughters and one son, ages 10, seven and three.
She remembers how it felt there in early 2022.
“Two years ago, I felt scared. I was afraid about my children … so I was worried about their safety and what I have to do with my kids. I was worried about their health,” she said. “It was a hard time for us.”
Perkhach, now a Barrie resident, said some things have changed for the better and some haven’t.
“It’s still war in our country and we’re still afraid about our lives, but our priorities are our families, who are staying still in Ukraine. Here in Canada, we have a safe place to live and we are sure that our children will grow in a safe place,” she said.
“I would like to say thank you to Canada and to Canadians for their support to Ukraine and to Ukrainians, because every Ukrainian who came to Canada has the opportunity to work, to start a new life.”
Since its launch in March 2022, the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel has provided a temporary safe haven to more than 220,000 Ukrainians now in Canada, says the federal government.
Roman Plawiuk says he’s a longtime resident of Barrie-Innisfil and a member of the local Ukrainian community.
He remembers the start of the war from a different perspective.
“It was a total shock,” Plawiuk said on Saturday. “We heard that the army there, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s army, was all around the borders of Ukraine, and on the one hand, (the Russians) were saying, ‘We’re doing military exercises, and when everyone says, ‘You’re going to invade Ukraine, they laughed, and said, ‘There you go again, West, spewing your lies.’
“The next thing you know, (United States President Joe) Biden says, ‘No, guys, take this seriously. He’s coming in,’ and next thing you know, they invaded. So, it was a shock.”
Now Plawiuk says he regards it as a political lesson.
“It definitely left me, and hopefully a lot of people, knowing that you can’t believe (Putin), even to the last minute. He says something, but (the Russians) do the opposite.”
Plawiuk says the world needs to learn from these lessons.
“We hear things like, ‘I’m not interested in invading other countries, Poland, the Baltic states,’” he said. “That is on (Putin’s) dinner plate — trust me — and people who have experienced Russian aggression, Soviet aggression, in prior years they know what it’s all about.
“If we learn from the past … we have to stop him now, because this is like a cancer. It’s going to keep growing.”
The Ukraine conflict began Feb. 24, 2022, when Russian military forces entered the country from Belarus, Russia and Crimea.
Before the invasion, there had already been eight years of conflict in Eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists.
A recent Leger poll suggests fewer Canadians feel the conflict has the potential to develop into a world war, though 58 per cent of respondents still fear that possibility — since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Three-quarters of respondents thought a global conflict could be in the offing in March 2022, a previous Leger survey showed.
As for which country will win the war, 47 per cent of respondents in the latest survey said they didn’t know. The rest were divided, with 28 per cent expecting Ukraine to defeat the invading force and 25 per cent saying Russia.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Saturday, joining other world leaders at the site of one of the war’s first and fiercest battles, to mark the Russian invasion’s second anniversary.
Trudeau appeared at Hostomel airport alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo in a show of global solidarity.
Behind them, the scorched husks of destroyed aircraft and the blackened walls of the airport just outside the capital served as a stark backdrop, a bitter reminder of the invasion’s earliest days.
When Putin launched his long-feared invasion, his paratroopers raided the airport just hours after the start of what he called a “special military operation” in the country.
Two years later, the wreckage of that battle remained strewn behind the leaders as they took their turns at the podium — lingering evidence of both an early triumph and the grinding, bloody conflict that continues to rage.
Also on Saturday in downtown Barrie, Punctuate! Theatre Production was to host a special tribute performance of First Métis Man of Odesa — written by Matthew MacKenzie and Mariya Khomutova — at Five Points Theatre.
Based on actual events, it is set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the curtain went up on a seven-show run scheduled to continue until March 2.
Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall, Coun. Craig Nixon, Barrie-Innisfil MP John Brassard, Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MP Doug Shipley and Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MPP Doug Downey also attended the Barrie City Hall rally.
— With files from the Canadian Press
