'It's a scary thing': Saskatoon Ukrainian community concerned over brewing conflict
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.
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
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge U.S. to prosecute the company
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.