Two-year anniversary of Russia invading Ukraine marked in Victoria

It’s now been two years since the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military. Ceremonies and rallies took place across Canada on Saturday in memory of the over 10,000 Ukrainian lives lost during the ongoing war.

Anastasiia Konstantynova is a Ukrainian refugee who fled the war zone country and now calls Victoria her new home.

She says she’s still reeling after seeing a video of her high school in Ukraine destroyed in a bombing just two days ago.

“You feel lots of emotions at the same time. You feel hatred, you feel pain, and I also feel powerless cause you can’t do nothing,” she said. “But what we can do is feel all these emotions and then stand up and do something.”

This is a feeling that many Ukrainians echoed Saturday at Centennial Square in Victoria.

Karmen McNamara is the founder of Help Ukraine Vancouver Island (HUVI). Her organization is dedicated to helping those who need it most, but she wants the war to end.

“We have an obligation as a member of the human race to stand up for injustice. I don’t want to live in a world where one nation can invade another and that’s OK,” said McNamara.

Since the creation of HUVI two years ago, it’s been able to help over 1,500 Ukrainian refugees that arrived on the Island.

READ MORE:

• Trudeau signs support pact, attacks ‘weakling’ Putin in unannounced Kyiv visit
• Two years in, Ukraine-Russia conflict brings hard choices, fractured families

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