Quebecers with close ties to people living in Ukraine are very concerned Tuesday night.
Friends and loved ones here are trying to keep in touch with their family members and others in Ukraine as Russian forces continue their assault.
“I cannot help. So I feel helpless, of course,” said Ukrainian Montrealer Boris, whose last name we are not sharing because he fears for his family and friends.
He tries to get hourly updates from his parents in Northern Ukraine and he follows his university friend Volodymyr Bykhovets on social media.
“It’s a nightmare,” said Bykhovets who lives in Chernihiv.
The Ukrainian documents destruction during the day. His city was heavily shelled by Russian forces. Despite no military experience, he is helping soldiers protect the city and has no plans to leave.
“It’s better to die when you defend than if you hide,” he told Global News over Zoom Tuesday.
According to McGill political science professor Daniel Béland, one per cent of Quebec’s population comes from Ukraine. However many are first-generation immigrants who still have ties to the eastern European country.
“This is something that is really unprecedented in terms of having one country invading another country in Europe in recent decades. So this is really something dramatic,” said Béland.
Orysia Krucko, who lives in Montreal, has been preoccupied by the Russian invasion because she has family in three regions of Ukraine.
“I’ve been extremely anxious about everything; I wake up at 3:00 a.m. wondering what has gone on, what’s transpiring,” she said.
She speaks to them every single day, something her nephew Pavlo Lukashchuk who lives in Kyiv told Global News he appreciates.
“They (my family) are constantly giving us support,” he said.
At the beginning of the invasion he admits it was “scary” but over the past few days, witnessing the resilience of Ukrainians, Lukashchuk told Global he is “confident.”
Regardless of how family members in Ukraine are feeling, Montrealers are still worried watching the war from thousands of kilometres away.
“I feel bad. If I was younger, I would fly there and defend my country,” said Ukrainian Montrealer Marika Pouka.
Pouka immigrated to Canada when she was 10 years old. She is offering the same opportunity to any family members who want to leave Ukraine.
“I asked them, ‘Come here, we’ll support you.’ And all of them said ‘No, if we leave, who’s going to defend Ukraine?”
Her cousin Ihor Vasylevskyi lives in Lviv. He told Global News he even has the opportunity to go to the United States because he has a green card.
“But I don’t want to leave my country in this hard time. No, no I will stay here,” he explained.
If Ukrainians are willing to leave, the city of Laval hopes to accept up to 2,000 refugees.
“We want to be working with the health services, the schools to make sure that whenever those people, those families arrive in Canada, that they can have a safe home,” said Mayor Stéphane Boyer.
The city also announced Tuesday it is donating $20,000 to the Red Cross.
Boyer is encouraging other cities in Quebec to welcome Ukrainians when the those who have fled their country come looking for a new home.
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