As the world marks the somber fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainians who have found refuge in Canada are holding commemorations from coast to coast—remembering not only the homeland they left behind, but the friends and family still living through the horror.
For Kristina Miroshnyk, now living in Winnipeg, the memories of February 24, 2022, remain impossibly vivid. Originally from Sumy in eastern Ukraine, just 30 kilometers from the Russian border, she had felt the looming threat in the weeks before.
“Everyone said to me just calm down, everything will be all right, it’s the 21st century, no one will allow this to happen,” she recalled this week.
She had bought tickets to flee to Lviv, near the Polish border, but delayed. Then came the 5:30 a.m. phone call.
“It was my friend who was panicking and she was like screaming, ‘It’s a war, the war has started.'”
Miroshnyk and her daughter eventually fled to Poland, then Greece, before becoming part of the roughly 300,000 Ukrainians who have arrived in Canada under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program.
‘My Parents Are Still Back Home’
Across Winnipeg, Anastasiia Ravska lives with the daily weight of separation and fear.
“My parents are still back home in Ukraine and lots of my friends and my male friends, lots of them were drafted and now they’re fighting,” she said.
She does what she can from thousands of miles away. “I do what I can do, I’m trying to support them, I am always trying to donate something to them as much as I can.”
For many Ukrainian newcomers, the focus is now on building stability in Canada—extending work permits, applying for permanent residency—while their children settle into schools. At R.F. Morrison School in Winnipeg, an estimated half of the students in most classes are Ukrainian-born. The school marked the anniversary with an assembly featuring poetry and commemorative pieces.
‘Arrived With Nothing’
In Toronto, a prayer service was held at St. Demetrius Church for all Ukrainian children displaced or lost in the war. The church’s school has welcomed 185 students from Ukraine.
Principal Lily Hordienko described the immediate, practical help offered to arriving families: “Basically from the moment they would enter we would give them toiletries, we would give them food, we would give them clothing, anything they would need. Basically we would try to help them knowing they had arrived with nothing and had no way of knowing how to help themselves.”
For student Polina Zaitseva, the war has come terrifyingly close. “It’s been really stressful because around a year ago my father’s house was attacked, so I was really worried about him.”
A Vigil in Saskatoon
In Saskatoon, a commemoration vigil was held in the chapel of St. Thomas More College. Among those attending was Petro Zerko, a second-generation Ukrainian-Canadian.
“It’s sad that it’s becoming just a common occurrence every year, attending this vigil,” he reflected. “Obviously, we look forward to the end of this war, but it’s great that we still keep those that fought for the freedom in our memory, especially on a day like today.”
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress also planned a walk in Saskatoon later on Tuesday.
The Fear of Being Forgotten
As the war grinds into its fourth year, a new anxiety is emerging among those displaced: that the world’s attention is drifting.
Kateryna Rudenko, who arrived in Halifax as a student in 2022, expressed this fear plainly.
“People seem to be forgetting about the war, they don’t seem as interested anymore in discussing it,” she said. “They seem to be more and more uncomfortable with sitting with our grief, witnessing our grief although the shellings only have been worse since 2022.”
She urged Canadians to educate themselves about Ukraine’s history to better understand what its people endure.
‘Playing Peek-a-Boo’
For Anastasiia Ravska, the psychological toll is captured in a simple, haunting metaphor.
“It’s kind of playing peek-a-boo when you’re a child,” she said. “If you close your eyes, you may feel like you’re out of the room, but you’re still present and what is going on around you is still happening. That’s the kind of situation we are all put into.”
International Solidarity
The Governing Council Members of the Community of Democracies, which includes Canada, issued a statement on Tuesday reaffirming solidarity with Ukraine’s people. It called on all nations to pressure Russia to return abducted Ukrainian children to their families, stating that the protection of children in armed conflict is “not optional, negotiable, or political.”
For Ukrainians in Canada, the fourth anniversary is not just a date on the calendar. It is a day of memory, grief, and a quiet, unwavering determination that their homeland—and its suffering—will not be forgotten.
