Ukrainian Canadians are expressing fear for their loved ones after the Russian invasion of their homeland.
Sam Martens, a Ukrainian citizen who has lived in Canada for two years, was in the crowd at a rally held in Vancouver on Thursday in support of peace in Ukraine. Martens told CTV News Vancouver that all his relatives are still in Ukraine.
“I messaged them this morning and they are reporting about bombings and they tried to, you know, escape the danger,” Martens said. “I came here (to the rally) to show the world I’m here, that I care.”
Ruslan Zeleniuk, who runs a Ukrainian export and import shop in Winnipeg, said his mother who lives in western Ukraine woke up to a country under attack.
“They heard overnight some explosions,” Zeleniuk said. “They’re in a state of disbelief and shock.”
Canada has the third-largest Ukrainian population in the world, behind Russia and Ukraine itself, with more than 1.3 million Canadians part of the Ukrainian diaspora.
By the beginning of the First World War, more than 150,000 displaced Ukrainians immigrated to Canada, drawn by the promise of inexpensive land in the Prairies.
"They were looking for a better life," Yulia Zmerzla, the executive director of the Ukrainian Cultural and Education Centre in Winnipeg, told CTV National News. "Sadly it's more than a century since those times and now history repeats."
Despite the danger, Zmerzla said her family still living in Ukraine wants to stay and defend their country.
“I do want my family to come here,” Zmerzla said. “I want to protect them."
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has put in place steps to expedite the process for Ukrainian Canadians to get immediate family to Canada, including priority process applications for adoption, as well as permanent and temporary residence applications for people with a primary residence in Ukraine who want to reunite with family in Canada or study, work, or start a new life in Canada.
While some Ukrainian Canadians worry for their loved ones who still live in Ukraine amid the escalating violence, others also worry for the fate of their ancestors' country, which they say is a large part of their identity.
"My sense of being Ukrainian and being closer to my people really grew over this year since the conflict," Anastasia Reznichenko, a Ukrainian Canadian who has lived in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont. for the past nine years, told CTV National News.
With files from CTV’s Alissa Thibault, Josh Crabb, and Nicole Lampa
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