'Disbelief and shock': Manitoba's Ukrainian community to hold rally after Russian invasion

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has set off a wave of reaction across the globe including in Manitoba where many people have close connections to the country.

A rally in support of Ukraine is being held this Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Manitoba Legislative Building. People are encouraged to bring signs and flags and wear the colours of Ukraine.

Ruslan Zeleniuk runs a Ukrainian export and import shop in Winnipeg. He said his mother who lives in western Ukraine woke up to a country under attack.

“They heard overnight some explosions,” Zeleniuk said. “They’re in a state of disbelief and shock.”

With more than 180,000 Ukrainian Manitobans living in the province, the impact here is wide reaching.

Despite the danger, Winnipegger Yulia Zmerzla, the executive director of the Ukrainian Cultural and Education Centre, said her family wants to stay and defend the country.

“I do want my family to come here,” Zmerzla. “I want to protect them. At the same time when I ask them if they would leave, they say no.”

She said her parents in western Ukraine have stocked up on medications and are ready to volunteer to help the wounded.

“Because they can hear the bombs,” Zmerzla said. “They are ready to help as much as they can.”

Yuliia Ivaniuk, coordinator of the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies, said she actually notified her parents and brother in western Ukraine about the invasion because they were sleeping when the attack started.

“They’re concerned if Russia’s blitzkrieg is successful in central, eastern and southern Ukraine they will keep on going west,” Ivaniuk said.

Ostap Skrypnyk with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress of Manitoba provincial council said people here are preparing to help any way they can.

The organization is working to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

“Ukraine is going to have lots of internally displaced people, shortages of food and medicine and infrastructure is being destroyed through the war,” Skrypnyk said. “It’s going to be a humanitarian tragedy for many, many months if not years to come.”

Zeleniuk said people have been sending care packages through his store to friends and family in Ukraine but now that the invasion has begun getting those packages to the country could be difficult.

“So we are in limbo right now,” Zeleniuk said.