Rally to demand no-fly zone over Ukraine

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This article was published 05/03/2022 (1323 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A rally on Sunday will call on Manitobans to do more to help Ukraine and ask NATO members to enforce a no-fly zone over the country being attacked by Russia.

“It’s a desperate plea for help,” said Ukrainian Canadian Congress spokesperson Alexandra Shkandrij, who expects elected officials from all three levels of government to attend the rally and show their support.

“What we’re seeing is unprecedented. You’re seeing the levelling of cities, you’re seeing the use of cluster bombs, you’re seeing the use of thermobaric weaponry, and you’re seeing the bombing of a nuclear power station,” she said Friday after shelling by Russian forces damaged a plant in eastern Ukraine on Thursday.

“None of these things have been seen in war and these are war crimes. These are civilian targets,” said Shkandrij, whose relatives in Ukraine are potential targets.

“They send us updates letting us know which subway station they’re sheltering in so we know, just in case the worst happens, where to look for them,” said Shkandrij, the exhibits curator at Oseredok who volunteers with the congress.

She was getting the word out about Sunday’s 2 p.m. rally on the grounds of the Manitoba legislature.

The congress has set up a portal for Manitobans to register if they’re willing to provide shelter to Ukrainians displaced by the war. The federal government is expediting temporary visas for Ukrainians who seek safe haven in Canada.

The congress is asking Ottawa to remove the visa requirements for Ukrainians, impose tougher sanctions against Russian oligarchs, increase both lethal and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and support a NATO-enforced no-fly zone.

The organizers of Sunday’s rally want NATO member states to enforce a no-fly zone in support of non-NATO member Ukraine.

“NATO already is involved in this,” said Shkandrij. “They’re funding a war with Ukrainian soldiers rather than with citizens of NATO and western states,” she said.

If a NATO member state shoots down a Russian aircraft over Ukraine, Russia isn’t likely to back off and it won’t end well, said Andrea Charron, director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba.

“The wider concern is that if we draw in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, against Russia, this is going to escalate quickly into a world war scenario,” Charron said Friday, noting that Canada’s air force doesn’t have the capability to enforce a no-fly zone.

“The history of no-fly zones has been rather disastrous in many cases. It doesn’t achieve the desired goal of protecting civilians,” the academic said. “In fact, then you have more assets raining down ammunition that can still hit civilians. And Russia will take this as a declaration of war.”

The fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons if other countries use force to intervene in Ukraine is a “wicked problem,” said Charron. “We’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t. Certainly, the Ukrainian people are going to feel this most acutely.”

She has concerns about a no-fly zone but sees Sunday’s rally as an effective way to help Ukraine.

“These peaceful protests are a way to show community support,” Charron said. “Videos are getting to people in Ukraine and that’s heartening for them to see that the world isn’t forgetting about them.”

The rally is an opportunity to encourage donations to humanitarian aid groups, she said.

Shkandrij said the “existential threat” posed by Putin to Ukraine, to democracy and to the rules-based international order demands a tougher response.

“If you allow for this to happen, then every state who has territorial ambitions and has nuclear weapons will pursue a similar path — and everyone who wants to go down that path will pursue nuclear weapons. So we’re in a position where we have to make choices that no one wants to make.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca