‘It’s wearing on them’: Humanitarian team reflects on upcoming 4th anniversary of war in Ukraine

A cemetery outside of Olyka, Ukraine, where dozens of military soldiers are buried and celebrated as heroes for their bravery.

Next Tuesday will mark four long years of war in Ukraine. It’s a conflict that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives, both those fighting on the frontlines and within that county’s civilian population.

Uliana Kolesnyk lives in the northwest corner of Ukraine. For the past few months she has been studying abroad in Germany, although two weeks ago she returned home to visit family.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I just got back to the apocalypse.’ That is exactly how it felt,” said Kolesnyk. “We had no electricity, we had no water.”

Russian drone strikes have crippled Ukraine’s power grid. Kolesnyk says during her stay there were only six hours of power each day. Adding to those challenges, this winter has been brutally frigid with temperatures sitting at around -20 on average.

“It’s been so cold that even plants were freezing in the apartments, and I’m not exaggerating,” said Kolesnyk.

Bob Beckett is with Vancouver Island Supports Ukraine, a humanitarian group based on southern Vancouver Island that has made four trips to the war-torn country, delivering hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of humanitarian aid raised through community donations.

He is reading a note he received from the deputy mayor of Olyka, a small town in the west of Ukraine with a population of roughly 12,000 residents.

“To date we’ve lost over 100 community members who are either confirmed dead, missing in action or held in captivity,” read Beckett. “28 children in our community are growing up as half orphans, having lost their fathers to this war.”

Currently 10 per cent of that small town’s population is fighting on the frontlines.

“It is wearing on them,” said Beckett.

In early April, the team will make its fifth journey to the embattled country, although after four years of war this trip could be the team’s most challenging.

“Each trip we see more and more of the grave sites with the Ukrainian flags flying over the graves of the lost heroes, as they are referred to,” said Beckett.

Bruce Brown is another volunteer with Vancouver Island Supports Ukraine. He has been on two trips to the country and says the Ukrainian people are exhausted by the war.

“It’s been a terrible four years,” said Brown. “I don’t think anybody really thought when this war first happened that it would go on this long, and it continues.”

The team is vowing to stand beside those in Ukraine who have experienced unimaginable loss and hardship over the past four years.

“It’s not finishing anytime soon,” said Kolesnyk. “We don’t even have hopes of it ending in the spring but we do hope it will end in 2027.”

Kolesnyk says one thing is for sure, the Ukrainian people will not back down continuing to fight against its Russian aggressors.