'It's really a bad day': Hundreds gather in St. John's to mark 2 years since the invasion of Ukraine
Katarina Gavrilyuk of Kyiv says it's important to continue publicly speaking about the war
For Katarina Gavrilyuk, Feb. 24 is a dark day, one that overshadows even the happy ones.
"It's really a bad day," said Gavrilyuk, with tearful eyes. "It's a day when you don't want to get up."
Instead, Gavrilyuk was one of hundreds who came to the St. John's Basilica on Saturday to mark the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Those in attendance listened to prayers and Bible readings, lit candles and sang the Ukrainian anthem.
Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, nearly 6.5 million Ukrainians have fled their country, according to the United Nations. About 4,000 of them came to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Gavrilyuk is one of them. She came to the province from Ukraine's capital Kyiv in June 2022, bringing only three suitcases with her.
"When we discovered that there is a war, we just run. We sit in our car and drive to the border," she said.
Now she and her family live in a house thanks to an abundance of support and donations. That support, she said, became obvious once again Saturday when she saw a church full of people who showed up in solidarity with Ukraine.
"We received a lot of hugs," said Gavrilyuk. "And it's really warm. It warms me and I'm pretty sure it warms everyone here."
Even though the war is far away for people in Newfoundland and Labrador, she said, it's still important to come together and mark the day.
"In Ukraine, we have a common phrase that evil is been doing by closed doors. So if you're silent about that, if you don't tell what has happened in Ukraine, what is going on in Ukraine right now, then Russia can continue do that," she said.
"We just need to speak as much as we can to say as much as you can about Ukraine.… Maybe it's hard for us to be here right now, maybe we all want to cover our heads and just survive this day. But it's important for us to show that we are still here."
Saturday's event was organized by the Ukrainian Cultural Organization of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Bruce Lilly, the organization's founder and executive director of the Ukrainian National Federation of Canada, said marking the day from afar is important.
"Because you're so far away, it would be easy to start to lose the threads. And if you don't have this commemoration, if you don't have these traditions, you start to lose threads," he said. "And I think that the reason why there's so many people coming to it is because they find those threads really important."
Lilly said he was happy to be able to offer a space for Ukrainians and locals alike to come together to mark the day.
"It's a really important time where you have to be able to find a spot to honour those and to think of those who have passed. And if you can do that in a community, all the better," he said.
Honouring those who fight for her country is also important for Gavrilyuk, whose best friend stayed behind to join the army.
While her mother fled to Germany, her father still lives in the occupied part of Ukraine, and so do many of her friends. For them, she said, war has become part of everyday life.
"When I ask, 'How are you, how was the night?' because there was a lot of bombing, there was a lot of missiles, they're like, 'Everything's fine. We were sleeping in a corridor,' or, 'We went to the bomb shelter,'" she said.
"They just get used to this. And I think this is the worst part of it."
While Gavrilyuk wants to remain positive that this time next year Ukrainians at home and abroad will be celebrating a victory, she doesn't quite believe in it.
"We want to live peacefully. We want to be sure that we can be in every part of the world, including our country and we won't be eliminated because of who we are. So I really want to meet with you in a year and say, 'Hooray, we did it,'" she said.
"But we can't do it without your help. That's why it's so important to continue and to say again, if you can do something for Ukraine, do it."
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