'It's a scary thing': Saskatoon Ukrainian community concerned over brewing conflict

SASKATOON -

Iryna Matsiuk says the news coming from Ukraine is troubling and concerning.

"This is not something you think is real, but then the war comes and knocks on your door,” said Matsiuik, with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress of Saskatoon.

Russia has massed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine's border, demanding that NATO promise it will never allow Ukraine to join and that other actions, such as stationing alliance troops in former Soviet bloc countries, be curtailed.

Matsiuk is one of the speakers at a virtual town hall Tuesday featuring Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. Matsiuk hopes to push for support and highlight the concern for those in Ukraine.

“The safety of families and friends, because if something starts happening, what do we do, there will be millions of people displaced again."

Canada has already imposed a lengthy series of sanctions related to Russia dating back to 2014 when its military forcibly annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

That 2014 conflict is on the minds of Rostyk and Olesya Hursky who moved from Ukraine to Canada in 1992 and 2001 respectively.

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They have three children born in Canada and say, they are raising them to be proud of their Ukrainian heritage.

When they watch the political unrest unfolding in Ukraine, a country that Rostyk Hursky says has never left his heart, it is troubling.

With family still in Ukraine, the escalation with Russia hits home.

“It’s a scary thing because as a parent you think what would you do in that situation,” Olesya Hursky told CTV News.

She still has close ties to Ukraine, the couple founding a non-profit organization called Stream of Hopes that sends supplies and money to orphans in Ukraine.

She says she’s talked to friends in Ukraine.

“It’s constant pressure and depressing potentially getting bombed any day and even figuring out where the nearest bomb shelter is and what you’d take with you,” Hursky said.

They’re part of the nearly one and a half million Ukrainian Canadians living in Canada.

They’re thankful for the help governments like Canada have provided, but fear it’s only the start.

“Now is enough, but for God’s sake and things escalate, that’s when I think people of Ukraine will need support and help,” Rostyk Hursky said.

With Canadian Press and Associated Press files