“May the sky above your head be peaceful”: this will be the main message of the Ukrainian community on the occasion of the Holidays at the end of the year.
During World War II, Ukraine was swallowed up by the Soviet and Nazi regimes, which left no family unscathed, so people wished each other “May the sky above your head be peaceful”. It was their way of saying “never again”. Since the annexation of Crimea and the Russian control of armed groups in the east of the country in 2014, followed by the brutal invasion in 2022, the old adage has taken on a new meaning that has brought many to tears, including me. :
…as we mourn our brave military men and women, their families and the civilian population are systematically targeted with untold cruelty to destroy the Ukrainian nation;
…as we pray for the lives of the thousands of prisoners of war and the three million Ukrainians, including 12,000 children, forcibly deported to Russia after experiencing the horrors of the filtration camps2 ;
…as we cherish the memories of peaceful skies above our now occupied homeland with towns and villages completely razed to the ground. “We must remember how lucky we are here to be free and safe,” as mentioned by the talented dancer Antonina Skobina, from Mariupol, who moved Quebec on the show Revolution3 ;
…while we hope that our allies provide all the means necessary for Ukraine to put an end quickly and definitively to the Russian bombardments aimed only at sowing death and spreading terror;
… one day our tears will dry up, even if the soul will remain marked forever. The wish will materialize, and peaceful blue skies will sweep over the lush green meadows of sovereign Ukraine with its 1991 borders. there will be no peace on the terms of the aggressor, the latter trampling on every human right imaginable. This is reflected in the words of Serhiy Jadan, Ukrainian candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature: “There can be no peace until there is justice. »4
EVHENIA VYACHANINOV
Photo courtesy of Evhenia Viatchaninov
Our deepest wish after Ukraine’s victory will be that the international tribunal severely condemns the main perpetrators and actors of this tyrannical war waged against the Ukrainian people.
A Russia that dominated the Soviet Union and never admitted its responsibility for the artificial famine of Holodomor, a genocide that killed millions of Ukrainians between 1932 and 1933. Moreover, this year, we commemorate the 90e anniversary.
It was following the liberation of her village that my grandmother recited for the first time: “May the sky above your head be peaceful”. A Holodomor survivor, she endured so much under the Soviets and continues to do so at 93 today. This time it is again Moscow which, with its imperial ambition, brings suffering and destruction to our once peaceful cottages.
Current and future generations deserve to be saved from the scourge of war. The solution continues to be an effective arming of Ukraine to defend its skies as well as its territory. No other way can stop the bear’s appetite and ensure lasting peace.
One thing is certain: it is not only its independence that the Ukrainians defend so courageously, but also, and above all, universal democratic values. If Ukraine fails, Russia will not stop there; lives and efforts will have been for nothing.
To prevent this, simply write to your MPs regularly to increase Canadian and NATO military assistance for Ukraine, as well as diplomatic and financial assistance. As Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matviychuk said on behalf of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties during her speech in Oslo: “You don’t have to be Ukrainian to support Ukraine. Just be human. »
By your actions, and this is also my holiday wish, please don’t forget the war, continue to support Ukraine and help bring us back to peaceful skies above the Ukraine and the free world!