Ukraine supporters pack legislature

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This article was published 06/03/2022 (1024 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A sea of blue and yellow packed the grounds of the Manitoba Legislative Building Sunday afternoon amid calls for more help to Ukraine.

Alex Polishchuk was one of the hundreds — possibly more than 1,000 — of people to participate.

“We’re asking NATO countries to close the sky over Ukraine,” Polishchuk, who has family in the embattled country, said. “Every day, it’s more difficult for Ukrainians to defend (themselves) because there’s more heavy artillery, more Russian air defence systems.”

His calls align with those of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, whose volunteers organized the weekend rally.

The congress is also asking Ottawa to remove visa requirements for Ukrainians, impose tougher sanctions against Russian oligarchs and increase lethal and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Currently, the federal government is expediting temporary visas for Ukrainians seeking safe haven. Canada has also placed sanctions on Russia.

“This isn’t just a war in Ukraine — this is a war that can potentially affect all of Europe, and we feel that other countries need to put in more effort,” Polishchuk said.

Anna Shypilova is experiencing the war through her loved ones’ phone calls.

The 19-year-old wore a Ukrainian flag over her coat while helping in Sunday’s event’s kids’ booth. She moved to Canada last year to study microbiology at the University of Manitoba. Her parents are still near Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.

“Today’s the first day where they’re staying calm,” Shypilova said. “I’m trying to call them as much as possible… I’m so worried about them.”

A friend’s house she used to stay at after school is destroyed, she said. Another friend is in the hospital with a broken spine and two broken legs — Russian shelling hit his 18th floor flat.

“(This is) the only way I can support Ukraine right now,” she said at the legislative building.

Her loved ones are staying optimistic, she said.

“We’re trying to talk about something else,” she said, adding it’s difficult, but sometimes school is mentioned.

On the day Russia invaded Ukraine, one friend — a medical student — took her dermatology exam online.

Shypilova’s parents don’t plan on leaving, and she still wants to return.

“We’ll stay strong,” she said. “We should be even stronger a little bit later (too), because we need to rebuild our cities (and) we need to rebuild our culture.”

For now, she connects with friends fleeing their homes and calls her parents daily.

Rally attendee Suzanne Wowchuk, 53, said she came to Broadway because she feels helpless about Ukraine’s situation.

“The least we can do is come together as a community, stand with Ukraine, pray together (and) hope together”– rally attendee Suzanne Wowchuk

“The least we can do is come together as a community, stand with Ukraine, pray together (and) hope together,” the Ukrainian said.

Part of Sunday’s event was to inform people about ways they can support, said Alexandra Shkandrij, the rally’s co-organizer.

She helped put on the late February rally for Ukraine in the same location; it drew roughly 5,000 people.

“The intensity of the situation is just really escalating, and so our calls are significantly more intense,” Shkandrij said.

On Sunday, there were booths accepting donations and displaying QR codes that linked to organizations aiding Ukraine. The Canadian Ukrainian Congress has also created a portal for Manitobans wanting to house Ukrainian refugees.

Shkandrij is hopeful the number of people showing their support will zap politicians into stronger action.

“I hope that there is enough political will, and more importantly… political leadership to make these really tough decisions, because we have to make them whether we want to or not,” she said.

Her father, Myroslav Shkandrij, who’s a professor emeritus of German and Slavic studies at the University of Manitoba, spoke at the rally.

He brought up the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, an agreement in which Ukraine transferred its nuclear arsenal to Russia for decommissioning. In return, the United States, United Kingdom and Russia were to respect Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty.

Ukraine wouldn’t be invaded had they not accepted the deal, some in the crowd, including the professor’s daughter and Polishchuk, said.

Politicians of all stripes, including Premier Heather Stefanson, spoke and were in attendance.

Earlier in the afternoon, a group of less than 100 gathered at The Forks to call for non-violent means to ending war in Ukraine.

“Ceasefire now. Negotiate peace” read the sign behind the rally’s speakers. Peace Alliance Winnipeg held the event.

Glenn Michalchuk, the alliance’s chair, said a no-fly zone over Ukraine is not the route to ending war.

“That, to us, is an escalation of the conflict, and even NATO has said that’s an escalation of the conflict,” he said. “There has to be a de-escalation of tensions, and there has to be diplomacy.”

A ceasefire is essential; if it doesn’t happen, there could be a world war, he said.

“I think there’s enough common sense in the international community” to enact a ceasefire, he added.

Daniel McClelland was in attendance. He fears a third world war if NATO involves itself further.

“We don’t want to see NATO in Ukraine, and we don’t want to see Russia in Ukraine. We just want Ukraine to be left alone,” he said.

Groups including the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians, the United Jewish People’s Order and the Communist Party of Canada’s Manitoba chapter were in attendance.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com