As Canadians hold commemorations marking 4 years for the reason that Russian invasion of Ukraine, a Ukrainian woman living in Winnipeg is amongst the numerous marking at the present time.
Kristina Miroshnyk is originally from Sumy in eastern Ukraine, just 30 km from the Russian border.
In early 2022, she felt anxious over what was a looming possibility of a Russian invasion and was considering moving to a different place within the country.
“Everyone said to me just calm down, every little thing can be all right, it’s the twenty first century, nobody will allow this to occur,” she told Global News this week from her home in Winnipeg.
Miroshnyk bought a ticket to Lviv, which is near Poland, but on the day they were to go away they didn’t.
“The subsequent morning I got a call at around, I don’t remember, 5:30 a.m., or 6 a.m. It was my friend who was panicking and he or she was like screaming, ‘It’s a war, the war has began.’”
She and her daughter fled to Poland where her husband worked, before leaving for Greece.
The family are only a number of of the roughly 300,000 Ukrainians who arrived in Canada under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel.
Now, 4 years later as they watch the war proceed to ravage their home, some Ukrainians in Canada say they’re still surprised they’re here.
“My parents are still back home in Ukraine and numerous my friends and my male friends, numerous them were drafted and now they’re fighting,” said Anastasiia Ravska, who also lives in Winnipeg.
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“I do what I can do, I’m attempting to support them, I’m at all times attempting to donate something to them as much as I can.”
For a lot of Ukrainians in town, they’re working to get work permits prolonged or applying for everlasting residency as their children are already established in schools.
R.F. Morrison School, where it’s estimated about half the scholars in most classes are Ukrainian-born, marked the four-year anniversary with an assembly. Poetry and commemorative pieces were an element of the ceremony.
One province over, a prayer service was held at St. Demetrius Church in Toronto for all Ukrainian children displaced or lost within the war.
“It’s been really stressful because around a yr ago my father’s house was attacked, so I used to be really anxious about him,” said Polina Zaitseva, a Ukrainian student at St. Demetrius Catholic School.
Principal Lily Hordienko said they’ve welcomed 185 students from Ukraine. That welcome has included greater than just education.
“Mainly from the moment they might enter we’d give them toiletries, we’d give them food, we’d give them clothing, anything they would want,” said Hordienko.
“Mainly we’d attempt to help them knowing that they had arrived with nothing and had no way of knowing methods to help themselves.”
The ceremonies at each schools were just two of many happening from coast to coast.
In Saskatoon, a commemoration vigil was held within the chapel of St. Thomas More College.
“It’s sad that it’s becoming just a typical occurrence yearly, attending this vigil,” said Petro Zerko, a second-generation Ukrainian-Canadian.
“Obviously, we sit up for the top of this war, nevertheless it’s great that we still keep those who fought for the liberty in our memory, especially on a day like today.”
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress can also be expected to carry a walk in Saskatoon afterward Tuesday.
In an announcement on Tuesday, the Governing Council Members of the Community of Democracies, which incorporates Canada, said it continues to face in solidarity with Ukraine’s people and called on all of the nations to exercise pressure on Russia to return the abducted Ukrainian children to their homeland and families.
It also said it reaffirmed the protection of kids in armed conflict is “not optional, negotiable, or political.”
But as countries reaffirm their support, some Ukrainians in Canada say they worry individuals are forgetting what’s happening.
“People appear to be forgetting concerning the war, they don’t seem as interested anymore in discussing it,” said Kateryna Rudenko, who arrived in Halifax in 2022. “They appear to be increasingly uncomfortable with sitting with our grief, witnessing our grief although the shellings only have been worse since 2022.
Rudenko, who arrived as a student just months after the war broke out, said she’d like people to teach themselves about Ukraine’s history in order that they have a greater understanding of what its individuals are going through.
For those like Ravska, at the same time as the years drag on, the sensation never disappears.
“It’s type of playing peek-a-boo whenever you’re a toddler,” she said. “If you happen to close your eyes, it’s possible you’ll feel such as you’re out of the room, but you’re still present and what is occurring around you continues to be happening. That’s the type of situation we’re all put into.”
–with files from Global News’ Iris Dyck, Caryn Lieberman, Slavo Kutas, Grace Miller and Mitchell Bailey
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.