N.B. Ukrainians feel angry, helpless on 3rd anniversary of the war
Gathering to be held at Moncton City Hall Monday evening to show support for Ukraine
Three years ago today, Russia invaded Ukraine in a full-scale effort that would become the deadliest conflict in Europe since the Second World War.
Ukrainians in New Brunswick are feeling helpless and angry as the war's death toll continues to rise and support on the other side of the border wavers.
"It's still the same devastating feeling," Oksana Seniv, who immigrated from Ukraine to Moncton six years ago, told CBC Radio's Information Morning Moncton.
"That pain is still there and probably won't go away until the end of our lives."
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2020, in a major escalation of a conflict that began in 2014.
That fact is one U.S. President Donald Trump has contested in the days leading up to the war's anniversary.
Trump claims Ukraine started the war and the country's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is an unelected dictator. Neither is true.
Volodymyr Komarov immigrated to Moncton from Ukraine six years ago. He said the false claims made by the president of Ukraine's biggest military ally are making him lose hope.
"The U.S. [is] kind of turning its back on us and that's very devastating," he said.
"I feel mad about it," said Komarov. "Ukraine didn't start this war."
Russia invaded Ukraine — unprovoked — in 2014, when it seized Crimea. Komarov said there's been a complete disregard for the independence of Ukraine from Russia ever since.
"The only big feeling I have is anger," said Seniv.
She said her thoughts are with the people fighting on the front lines.
"What about their lives? What about people who died? What about people who were fleeing from the war … Why would they shift the focus?"
Seniv said there's a sense of hopelessness when world leaders that are supposed to be supporting your country are doing the opposite and spreading a false narrative in the process.
U.S. and Russian officials met last week to start discussing a possible end to the war, leaving Ukraine out of the conversation.
This prompted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to stand up for the war-torn country, stating that no conversations about Ukraine will happen "without Ukraine."
Komarov said he worries that any negotiations made by Russia without Ukraine at the table will lead to devastating impacts.
"If the war is over on Russia's terms, there will be concentration camps, there will be a complete destruction of Ukrainian culture, there will be many more victims of this war," he said. "It will be like any other dictatorship where people disappear and you won't even hear about it."
As a Canadian-Ukrainian, Komarov said Trump's comments about Canada becoming the 51st state are concerning.
"It's a very dangerous rhetoric and that's kind of how it started in Ukraine," he said.
A decade ago, Ukraine had strong ties with Russia, said Komarov, and he wouldn't have imagined back then the country imposing such devastation on its neighbour.
He said he's witnessed first-hand how fast relationships between countries can change for the worse and he's taking Trump's threats seriously.
"We should all be prepared, even for the worst," said Seniv. "Hopefully it's not going to happen, but we need to look at this with precaution."
A rally will be held outside of Moncton City Hall this evening to mark the war's anniversary and to show support for Ukraine.
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With files from Information Morning Moncton