As Russian forces continue the invasion into Ukraine, members of Ottawa’s Ukrainian community grow more concerned for their loved-ones back home.

Russia gathered an estimated 150,000 troops at the Ukrainian border for weeks while the world looked on with worry, launching an invasion beginning on Thursday. Russian forces are attacking Ukraine from multiple directions, targeting vital infrastructure such as airports and hospitals, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has fully mobilized the Ukrainian military and has called on all able-bodied Ukrainians of fighting age to defend their homeland. Russian forces breached the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Friday.

Michael Kostiuk, a member of Ottawa’s Ukrainian community, has family and friends living in Kyiv. He says the situation in Ukraine has “changed dramatically” in a short period of time.

“A week ago, I was asked about my relatives in Ukraine,” says Kotsiuk. “I said they're probably not going to be endangered because they're in the far west, and the fighting was probably going to be around… the far east.”

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “military operation” would be launched in the eastern region of Ukraine in the disputed Donbas territory. Putin has framed the invasion as self-defence, claiming his intention is not to occupy Ukraine but to ensure the “demilitarization and de-Nazification” of the country, whose president is Jewish.

Kostiuk, who had been communicating regularly with his family in Kyiv prior to Thursday, says he hasn’t heard from them since the invasion began.

“They live basically right beside the airport, which was hit by rockets,” says Kostiuk. “I don't know if they hit the street of houses where my relatives are.”

Kostiuk, who has several degrees in geography and Slavic studies with a specialization in Ukrainian, understands the complexity of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict on both a personal and academic level. 

He was studying at a university in Kyiv in 1991 when the communist Soviet Union disbanded and was reformed into 12 independent republics, including Russia and Ukraine. Kostiuk recalls a sense of optimism shared among Ukrainians at the time.

“Their perspective was [that] an independent Ukraine was going to be prosperous, and they'd be better off economically,” says Kostiuk. “And that's kind of the driving force for many people—a better economic situation, and improved quality of life.”

Now an independent constitutional republic with a distinct sense of national identity, Ukraine is showing no signs of yielding to the state bearing down on it.

On Friday, Russian forces captured the southern city of Kherson, which Ukrainians reclaimed over the weekend. According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the Russian push into Kyiv and the Northeast between Chernihiv and Kharkiv was paused over the weekend to allow additional troops and supplies to arrive.

Men aged 18 to 60 have been forbidden from fleeing Ukraine, and have been instructed to stay behind to aid the war effort. On Sunday, Zelenskyy called on residents of foreign nations to join the newly created “International Legion”, a militia of volunteers intended to “protect world security from the Putin regime.”

Although Russia’s military strength is superior to Ukraine’s, bolstered by aid from Belarusian forces and with support from separatists in the Donbas region, Ukrainians say they refuse to surrender. 

Kostiuk says Ukrainians are unlikely to give up their independence willingly.

“They've had their independence since ‘91,” he says. “They're just going to keep fighting and fighting. Putin thinks Ukraine is just going to roll over. No, it's not.”

Amidst sanctions and strong words from world leaders, including measures imposed by Canada, Putin has put Russia’s nuclear and strategic missile forces on their highest alert status. He has threatened that direct military action against Russia would result in “consequences they have never seen.”

On Sunday, the United Nations responded to Russia’s nuclear threats by calling a rare emergency meeting of the General Assembly to be held the following day. During the meeting, member nations condemned Russia’s war against Ukraine and urged Putin to withdraw his forces. 

Countries in close proximity to Russia, such as Germany and Lithuania, expressed a fear that they would become future victims of Russian conquest.

Russian aggression against Ukraine, exemplified by its 2014 annexation of Crimea, is rooted in the breakup of the Soviet Union. Most of Ukraine was part of the former Russian Empire, later the communist Soviet Union, then called the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (S.S.R.) 

Russia has long been opposed to Ukraine’s independence, challenging the republic’s attempts to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). As recently as December 2021, Putin sent a correspondence to the United States demanding that Ukraine be banned from joining NATO. The demands, which were rejected by the U.S. and NATO, also required that NATO withdraw weapons and supplies from countries which entered the alliance after 1997, many of which are former Soviet Union member states.

Many believe that Putin’s ultimate objective is to resurrect and reunify the Soviet Union, a goal which Kostiuk calls “a fantasy.”

“You have a European-oriented country versus a Eurasian mentality, and that itself differentiates them quite a bit,” says Kostiuk. “They have different histories and different dynamics there. So for Putin to say that Ukraine is part of Russia - no, it isn't. Maybe it's good for a speech, but it's not really based in reality.”

On Monday, the Ukrainian government announced its application to the European Union via “a special procedure.” Membership to the EU would provide stronger protections for the democratic rights and freedoms of Ukraine.

In an unprecedented move, the EU says it will supply Ukraine with firearms to combat Russian aggression. 

Other European nations, such as Poland and Romania, which are close neighbours of Ukraine, have stepped in to shelter hundreds of thousands of displaced Ukrainians.

The UN reported on Monday that half a million refugees have already fled, with many more expected to lose their homes in the coming days. 

Kostiuk, whose loved ones may be among the refugees, says those who have managed to flee to safety are in danger of losing their homes for good.

“Anytime there's a massive exodus of people, what happens to the property?” says Kostiuk. It’s someone else who's going to get their property, which is what could possibly happen if the Russians try to take over the entire country. It's a heartbreak for the people, because who are they leaving behind?”

As of Sunday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported 352 civilian casualties and 1,684 injuries. Dozens more were reported dead on Monday after Russian forces attacked Kharkiv, according to the BBC.

Talks on Monday between Kyiv and Moscow resulted in both parties agreeing to continue negotiations.

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