Calgary Ukrainian community gathers to commemorate the Holodomor

Calgary's Ukrainian community gathered at St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Orthodox Cultural Centre Saturday to commemorate the Holodomor

Calgary’s Ukrainian community commemorated the Holodomor Saturday in a ceremony that paid tribute to millions of victims from the past and to remind the world of the parallels to what is taking place in Ukraine now.

For Stephania Romaniuk, the vice-president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Calgary branch, the parallels between Stalin’s man-made famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in 1932 and 1933 and Vladimir Putin’s invasion are disturbing.

“The fact is that we see the same tactics being used in Ukraine today as they were used over 90 years ago,” Romaniuk said, in an interview with CTV News.

“Putin we have seen is trying to not only exterminate the Ukrainian people, but he's trying to eradicate the entire idea of Ukraine, and this is the same exact goal that (Joseph) Stalin had in the 1930s during his process of collectivization,” she added.

“There was resistance from the Ukrainian farmers,” she said. “And to squash that resistance, Stalin closed the borders, he raised the grain quotas.

"And even after those were met,," she added, "he removed the grain from the territory of Ukraine, and so there was mass starvation.”

Saturday’s event featured a number of dignitaries, politicians and performances from youth performers and Calgary’s first Ukrainian theatre company.

There was also a traditional Ukrainian memorial service.

War weary

Romaniuk said Ukrainians are war-weary.

“It's exceptionally challenging emotionally to be living day by day through this war,” she said.

The community is anxiously watching and listening to Donald Trump, the incoming U.S. president, she said.

“We are obviously concerned by the rhetoric he has used in the past about Ukraine, “ she said.

She also expressed gratitude to Canadians for supporting the Ukrainian community during a difficult period.

“I just wanted to say thank you so much to to all Canadians for their support of the Ukrainian community.,” she said. “ We are grateful that we've been able to support newcomers to our country who are now giving back to Canadian civic life and just thank you for standing by us from the beginning.”

For more on the Ukrainian Canadian Congress -- Calgary branch, go here.

With files from CTV's Tyler Barrow