Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand spoke to an event in Ottawa yesterday marking the 4th anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Anand was the Minister of National Defence at the time of the invasion and was part of intense intelligence briefings during the build up of Russian forces along the Ukrainian border.
Anand, clad in blue and yellow, told those gathered at the University of Ottawa that Canada remains a steadfast supporter of Ukraine, rules-based order and territorial integrity and sovereignty.
“The decisions about Ukraine’s geography, the decisions about Ukraine’s territorial integrity are not decisions for Russia or Vladimir Putin to make. Those are decisions for Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian government to make. It is their future, it is their territorial integrity, it is their sovereignty which is at issue and that it why it is their decision to make.”
Ukrainian refugees arrive in St. John’s, December 2022 (VOCM News)
Thousands of Ukrainians now call Newfoundland and Labrador home. Bruce Lilly of Ukrainian NL says four years on and the war is causing trauma for people in previously unimaginable ways.
He says Ukrainians in Newfoundland and Labrador are “living in two worlds, because they are far away from their homeland, but with technology you’re never too far away. So you’re experiencing trauma in a way that is probably unprecedented.”
A commemorative event that was scheduled for yesterday was postponed because of the weather. It has been rescheduled for this Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at the Basilica of St. John the Baptist in St. John’s.
