Large crowds gathered in downtown Vancouver on Saturday for the latest in a string of rallies in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, as Russia’s invasion nears the country’s capital city of Kyiv.
Demonstrators, many dressed in blue and yellow or bearing the flag of Ukraine, gathered in the north plaza of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Organizer Pavlo Ponikarovskyi told Global News he was expecting between 2,000 and 4,000 people to show up.
Ponikarovskyi, who was raised in Ukraine, said he was still in shock to see images of his hometown of Kyiv under assault.
“They’re bombing the city where I grew up in,” he said.
“For the last eight years it was just living next to the constant threat of war, but we were always just hoping they were not crazy enough to do a full on invasion.”
Vitaly Shalukin told Global News he was at the rally because he wanted the people of Ukraine to know they were not alone, and that people all around the world were standing with them.
“It’s just heartbreaking that we live in one world but two different realities — Here everything seems to be normal, but on the other side of the world people are dying,” he said.
“They’re constantly living under life-threatening conditions right now. Every time I talk to my family, they hear announcements like, ‘Take cover, missiles coming, or take cover there is an airstrike.’ They are trying to find the safest place to stay, and it’s a constant mode of surviving, trying to stay alive.”
Mariya Miloshevych’s entire family, including parents, grandmothers, brother and sister are all in Ukraine, most of them just outside of Kyiv.
She said her family refused to give up their lives in Ukraine, instead taking cover in bomb shelters amid ongoing bombardment by the Russian military.
“On one hand I really want to be there to help, to support to pick up a gun, to cover the markings, to get people to safety, to volunteer, but at the same time if I am there I am a liability for my family and I am just another person who can get hurt or inured,” she said.
“I’m going to be here, I’m going to do as much as I can here. I’m going to join these meetings, I’m going to come and lift the conversation as high as I can and do what we can do.”
On Thursday, hundreds of people gathered in the same location to oppose the war and show solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
A curfew in Kyiv was extended Saturday, following a night of airstrikes and intense fighting. Russian forces have yet to capture the capital.
As of Saturday, at least 198 Ukrainians, including three children, had been killed in the Russian invasion and 1,115 people were wounded, according to Ukraine’s Health Ministry.
On Friday, B.C. Premier John Horgan condemned the invasion, as the province announced $1 million in support for Ukraine through the Red Cross.
The province also announced it would cease the import and sale of Russian products at BC Liquor Stores following calls from the opposition BC Liberals.
– with files from Global News’ Saba Aziz
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