As Canadians hold commemorations marking four years since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a Ukrainian woman living in Winnipeg is among the many marking this day.
Kristina Miroshnyk is originally from Sumy in eastern Ukraine, just 30 km from the Russian border.
In early 2022, she felt anxious over what was a looming possibility of a Russian invasion and was considering moving to another place in the country.
“Everyone said to me just calm down, everything will be all right, it’s the 21st century, no one will allow this to happen,” she told Global News this week from her home in Winnipeg.
Miroshnyk bought a ticket to Lviv, which is close to Poland, but on the day they were to leave they didn’t.
“The next morning I got a call at around, I don’t remember, 5:30 a.m., or 6 a.m. It was my friend who was panicking and she was like screaming, ‘It’s a war, the war has started.’”
She and her daughter fled to Poland where her husband worked, before leaving for Greece.
The family are just a few of the roughly 300,000 Ukrainians who arrived in Canada under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel.
Now, four years later as they watch the war continue to ravage their home, some Ukrainians in Canada say they’re still surprised they’re here.
“My parents are still back home in Ukraine and lots of my friends and my male friends, lots of them were drafted and now they’re fighting,” said Anastasiia Ravska, who also lives in Winnipeg.
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“I do what I can do, I’m trying to support them, I am always trying to donate something to them as much as I can.”
For many Ukrainians in the city, they’re working to get work permits extended or applying for permanent residency as their children are already established in schools.
R.F. Morrison School, where it’s estimated about half the students in most classes are Ukrainian-born, marked the four-year anniversary with an assembly. Poetry and commemorative pieces were a part of the ceremony.
One province over, a prayer service was held at St. Demetrius Church in Toronto for all Ukrainian children displaced or lost in the war.
“It’s been really stressful because around a year ago my father’s house was attacked, so I was really worried about him,” said Polina Zaitseva, a Ukrainian student at St. Demetrius Catholic School.
Principal Lily Hordienko said they have welcomed 185 students from Ukraine. That welcome has included more than just education.
“Basically from the moment they would enter we would give them toiletries, we would give them food, we would give them clothing, anything they would need,” said Hordienko.
“Basically we would try to help them knowing they had arrived with nothing and had no way of knowing how to help themselves.”
The ceremonies at both schools were just two of many happening from coast to coast.
In Saskatoon, a commemoration vigil was held in the chapel of St. Thomas More College.
“It’s sad that it’s becoming just a common occurrence every year, attending this vigil,” said Petro Zerko, a second-generation Ukrainian-Canadian.
“Obviously, we look forward to the end of this war, but it’s great that we still keep those that fought for the freedom in our memory, especially on a day like today.”
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress is also expected to hold a walk in Saskatoon later on Tuesday.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Governing Council Members of the Community of Democracies, which includes Canada, said it continues to stand in solidarity with Ukraine’s people and called on all the nations to exercise pressure on Russia to return the abducted Ukrainian children to their homeland and families.
It also said it reaffirmed the protection of children in armed conflict is “not optional, negotiable, or political.”
But as countries reaffirm their support, some Ukrainians in Canada say they worry people are forgetting what’s happening.
“People seem to be forgetting about the war, they don’t seem as interested anymore in discussing it,” said Kateryna Rudenko, who arrived in Halifax in 2022. “They seem to be more and more uncomfortable with sitting with our grief, witnessing our grief although the shellings only have been worse since 2022.
Rudenko, who arrived as a student just months after the war broke out, said she’d like people to educate themselves about Ukraine’s history so they have a better understanding of what its people are going through.
For those like Ravska, even as the years drag on, the feeling never disappears.
“It’s kind of playing peek-a-boo when you’re a child,” she said. “If you close your eyes, you may feel like you’re out of the room, but you’re still present and what is going on around you is still happening. That’s the kind of situation we are all put into.”
–with files from Global News’ Iris Dyck, Caryn Lieberman, Slavo Kutas, Grace Miller and Mitchell Bailey
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
