A moment of silence was observed at Vernon city hall on the cold Tuesday evening of Nov. 19, the 1,000th day since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
During moments of silence, people tend to bow their heads and cast a low gaze, while using the silence to reflect on those being remembered, or one’s good fortune during peace time.
When Andrea Malysh bowed her head, her gaze fell on a maple leaf on the ground at her feet, and the symbolism was not lost on her.
“I’m looking down and there’s a Canadian maple leaf, and all I can think about is how lucky we are to be here in Canada and to be free, and just wishing that Ukraine gains its freedom again,” said Malysh, president of the Thompson Okanagan Branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, who has organized numerous events in solidarity with Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
On that day, Malysh told the crowd of 30 or so people, Russian tanks rolled across the Ukrainian border and a war that had been simmering since the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula broke out in full force. The assault was met with “fierce Ukrainian determination to defend Ukraine’s freedom, statehood and identity,” Malysh said.
“1,000 days later, the Ukrainian people fight on.”
People in attendance lit candles for Ukraine before Olga Piano, cantor at St. Josephat’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, tearfully led the singing of the Ukrainian anthem, a song called Eternal Memory, and a hymnal prayer for Ukraine.
Tearfully because Piano has family members in Ukraine who she hasn’t heard from in some time.
“Russia has murdered many thousands of innocent Ukrainians,” Malysh said. “Russia has kidnapped thousands of Ukrainian children. Russia has destroyed cities and towns, homes and buildings, dams and roads. Russia has committed countless atrocities and crimes against humanity.”
Malysh said the vigil was about honouring the Ukrainian soldier “who fights with courage and ingenuity,” the Ukrainian firefighter who extinguishes blazes from Russian airstrikes, the Ukrainian engineer who restores power to cities after a missile attack, and the doctors and nurses who work tirelessly to heal Ukraine’s injured. She also honoured Ukraine’s teachers, who amid the war continue to educate youth in bomb shelters and subway stations.
Malysh called on democratically elected governments around the world to continue to provide weapons and economic aid to Ukraine in its urgent time of need.
“We recall that Ukrainians fight not only in defence of their own freedom, but that of all of Europe,” she said.
Malysh and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress will convene at city hall again on Sunday, Nov. 24, for the 91st anniversary of the Holodomor, a genocidal campaign of starvation by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin that took place in Ukraine in 1932-33 and resulted in millions of lives lost. People are invited to take part in the commemoration at 3:30 p.m.
