Vancouver police are investigating after a cultural institution of the Vancouver Russian community was targeted by vandalism.
The Russian Community Centre near 4th Avenue and Arbutus Street was splashed with blue and yellow paint — the colours of the Ukrainian flag — sometime early Saturday.
When Global News attended the scene Saturday morning, the paint was still wet.
Community centre president Ariadna McKenna said the incident left her “choking back tears.”
“It was a smack in the face when I drove up and saw it,” she said.
“To have people filled with so much hatred over something that is half a world away — there are other ways of showing your support for whoever you need to support.”
“I was shaken. I saw blue and yellow. You know what the funny thing is? I’m Ukrainian. My family is right now there in Ukraine. I’m trying to get the kids now close to the border,” community centre board member Natasha Kovalchuk said.
“In Canada, we didn’t think this will happen.”
Kovalchuk said the community centre is a cultural hub that serves people of many nationalities. But even if it was a purely Russian community institution, she said, targeting it over the actions of the Russian government was wrong.
“They didn’t start this,” she said of the local Russian community.
“Just think. I know there’s a lot of people angry and they want to release that anger at someone. We’re people here too.”
Kovalchuk said that the attack came as about 100 kids were scheduled to come in for school on Saturday. She said parents would likely be scared by the incident and that classes would probably be cancelled.
Vancouver police said no arrests had been made and the investigation was ongoing.
The vandalism comes days after a Russian Orthodox Church in Victoria had red paint splattered over its entrance.
The incidents come as the war in Ukraine, where Russian forces have invaded and have caused significant damage to multiple major cities, escalates.
The United Nations has confirmed at least 351 civilian deaths, but said true numbers are probably “considerably higher,” Reuters reported Saturday.
Comments