London, Ont., residents describe 'detrimental' impacts of 1,000 days of war in Ukraine

As the war in Ukraine enters its 1,000th day with no end in sight, London, Ont., residents who have recently visited Ukraine say the devastation has taken a damaging toll on its population. 

"The situation is tough in Ukraine, the war is destroying everything and it's damaging people's minds. It's detrimental," said Nadiya Drofyak, an English lecturer at a university, who lived in London at the war's start in 2022 but has since moved back to Lviv.  

"Ukrainians have gone through 1,000 days of full-scale war which is ruining cities, villages and most importantly people who are displaced all over the world, who have lost their homes, relatives and children."

Drofyak came to London from Ukraine with her daughter, having to leave her husband and son behind. But a moral obligation as an educator compelled her to go back to her homeland and fill a growing need to help keep the country's education system afloat, she said. 

"Our education at the moment is in a terrible situation because we lack teachers and lecturers since a lot of people fled all over the globe but the young generation needs to be educated. That's why I came back," Drofyak said, adding she regularly returns to London to visit her daughter.

Doing her job hasn't been easy with Russian missiles constantly targeting energy infrastructure, leading to regular electricity blackouts, all while Drofyak and her colleagues often teach classes in shelters and basements, she said. 

Resilience despite mental fatigue

Despite the mental fatigue among Ukrainians living in war zones and in the diaspora, the community's resilience remains strong, said Dr. Roman Kozak, a London physician who recently visited Ukraine as part of a convoy to deliver medical aid.

"People are tired because they've been in this war for almost three years now, but I felt they're still pretty determined and that they want to keep fighting because if they stop fighting, they lose the country," said Kozak, whose parents were born and raised in Ukraine. 

Kozak worked with a national union of miners in Wales to collect funds and fill trucks with medical supplies that were driven across Europe to the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, where he said the war is most intense. He said it was an uplifting experience to be able to provide support to his parents' country of origin. 

Kozak finds that an issue often overlooked in this war is the thousands of Ukrainian children who have been kidnapped and taken away from their families by Russian forces.

"It's a very emotional topic," he said. "[Children] are often told their parents are dead even if they're not and resettled with other families to be Russified. This is something that is very damaging to the whole population of Ukraine."

In October, the Save Ukraine charity told CBC's The Current that 19,500 Ukrainian children have been illegally and forcibly taken away to Russia since 2022. 

Rebuilding but longing for home

Although many Ukrainians who fled the war have been able to rebuild their lives, they're still longing for their old lives, said Ola Nowosad, vice-president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress' London chapter.

"They did not expect the war to go on this long so they are missing home, but at the same time, they are grateful to be here in Canada to find a safe haven," she said. They've made friends, found jobs and are getting established, but the underlying theme is there's no place like home."

Although provincial statistics from 2023 estimate that around 6,000 Ukrainians resettled to southwestern Ontario when the war began, Nowosad said it's hard to quantify how many still live in the region. Many have improved their English language skills and found good jobs, and others started their own businesses in the food, retail and hospitality industries, she added. 

To commemorate the 1,000 days of war, the local community is hosting a candlelight vigil at the London Ukrainian Centre on Tuesday at 5 p.m., which Nowosad said she hopes can bring people together to remember the losses and the lives disrupted.