Anti-war protests across Canada and the globe stand in solidarity with Ukraine
By Heather Butts
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TORONTO (CTV Network) — As Ukraine struggled through another day under attack, a wave of global anger with Russia spread across the world on Sunday, with anti-war protests occurring in numerous countries — including Russia.
Across Europe and Canada, there has been nearly universal condemnation.
More than 100,000 marched through Berlin on Sunday, standing in solidarity with Ukraine.
“I am horrified, totally horrified,” said Uwe Kruger, a Berlin resident. “I cannot find the words. I couldn’t believe it. I was, up until 14 days ago, someone who thought he understood Putin. That’s over now.”
Another man described the invasion as “an attack on us all.”
Protesters showed their support through numbers to deliver a message.
“I think our leaders are not at all taking enough action to help Ukrainians who are our neighbours and our friends and who are getting invaded,” said Claire Chaulet, another German protester. “They are losing their sovereignty.”
In Prague, thousands gathered in the Central Square, joined by Czech Republic Prime Minister, Petr Fiala.
“We cannot accept that tanks can come to a country and crush the desire for freedom and democracy there,” Fiala said at the protest. “We cannot accept that. Thank you for your support and glory to Ukraine.”
Retaliation against Putin’s war is also growing from within Russia itself. The rare act of defiance has been building for days.
Anti-war protests spread to 48 cities across the country on Sunday, but in Moscow riot police outnumbers the protesters. Police arrested more than 5,500 people in the crackdown.
Anti-war protests were also held in cities across Canada, a chorus of voices growing in size over the weekend.
Thousands rallied in Toronto, joined be Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.
“It is horrific and people are dying in Ukraine right now for absolutely no reason, and we have to remember that,” she said during the rally.
Freeland told the crowd to be proud of the courageous stand Ukrainians were taking.
“The Ukrainians are doing one hell of a job,” she said.
In Edmonton, Vitalii Haponiuk joined thousands to march on Sunday. Like many in the protest, she is from Ukraine, having come to Canada as a student three years ago.
“I’m worried about my parents,” Haponiuk told The Canadian Press. “They live in a small town, but even there they heard Russian planes, Russian bombs. It’s very scary.”
In Montreal’s protest, 17-year-old Anya Dashe told The Canadian Press that her father is in Ukraine and called them today to say goodbye.
“He thinks he’s going to die today because there are multiple bombs going over my city,” she said.
There was a large crowd outside the B.C. legislature on Sunday to express their anger over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The crowd included local politicians as well as people like Oleksandr Filonovych, who is afraid for the safely of his family.
“Pretty much all of my family except my wife and my kid are in Ukraine, so my mom, my brother, my dad, all my cousins, everybody,” Filonovych said, adding that many of them are in the capital, Kyiv.
At the Russian embassy in Ottawa, families are fearing for loved ones now sleeping in bomb shelters.
Jane Rubina’s family is in Ukraine.
“At this point, everybody is alive and that’s all we are praying for at the moment,” she told CTV News.
With Ottawa still recovering from a three-week occupation of truckers and other demonstrators protesting against vaccine mandates and the government, Ottawa resident Jordyn Kiteley said she was surprised by the number of people who turned up to condemn Russia’s actions.
“I’m proud to be Canadian, especially after all the dumb convoy stuff we saw,” she told The Canadian Press. “This is just overpowering to watch and to see how people are feeling about it, and that I’m not alone with this.”
In Winnipeg, there was a “Stand With Ukraine” rally at the Manitoba legislative ground, attended by approximately 2,000 people.
Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson spoke at the rally, wearing a coat the colour of Ukraine’s flag and promising that the province would do all it could to help Ukrainian refugees.
“Here on the legislative grounds there is a monument recognizing the 1932 Holodomor, Josef Stalin’s forced famine that killed millions of Ukrainians by starvation,” Stefanson said. “The Ukrainian people have suffered under the rule of an evil dictator before. Manitobans and all Canadians must do everything we can to make sure that never happens again.”
With files from the Canadian Press, CTVNews.ca‘s Alexandra Mae Jones and CTVNewsVancouver.ca‘s Ian Holliday
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Sonja Puzicsonja.puzic@bellmedia.ca
