Ukraine focus of legislature gathering

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/12/2014 (4119 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

About 100 people gathered at the steps of the legislature on Sunday evening to mark the anniversary of Ukraine’s revolution.

The event, observed by members of Manitoba’s 120,000 Ukrainian Canadians, was the latest in a series of observances over the past year.

Like the others, this one was designed to keep public attention on Ukraine’s war to maintain its sovereignty in the face of aggression from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“This marks the one-year anniversary of the Maidan demonstrations in Ukraine,” said Ostap Skrypnyk, an organizer with the Manitoba chapter of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.

Euromaidan (literally Euro Square) was a wave of protests, marked by demonstrations in Ukraine that started in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in the heart of Kyiv.

More than a year later, the impact of those demonstrations is being felt in the face of shifting change in Ukraine.

In 2013, the civil unrest began with demands for closer ties to the European Union.

Demonstrations last year expanded, with calls for the resignation of President Viktor Yanokovych and his government, and eventually triggered the 2014 Ukrainian revolution.

The events there have carried emotional impact here as the ex-Soviet state wages war against separatists who have power over parts of eastern Ukraine since the overthrow of a Russian-backed president and Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

“Most people are glued to their computers. There is a lot of interest in what’s going on and a lot of interest in what we can do to help,” Skrypnyk said.

The Canadian government has sent millions of dollars in humanitarian and non-lethal military aid to Ukraine, including shipments last month of boots and winter clothing for soldiers.

The Ukrainian military is in such poor shape it’s had to crowd source for supplies from tanks to uniforms.

“Canada has helped a lot,” Skrypnyk said, adding Ukrainian Canadians keep pressing Prime Minister Stephen Harper for additional aid.

Much of the focus this winter is on Ukrainians displaced by the conflict. Reports range from the conservative estimate of 600,000 people to the more widely quoted one million or more.

“The situation is bad right now. It’s the worst humanitarian crisis in Europe since the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s,” said Nick Krawetz, one of two speakers for the Winnipeg event.

“Many are in bomb shelters and cellars, without heat or (winter) clothing and we are calling on our government to send increased humanitarian aid to Ukraine,” Krawetz said.

Canada’s 1.2 million-strong community is one of the largest Ukrainian populations outside Ukraine, and Winnipeg has one of the largest populations in Canada.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca