Vladimir Putin’s warlike rhetoric concerning Ukraine has echoes as far away as Quebec, where citizens of Ukrainian origin fear that the Eastern European country will be “swallowed up piece by piece” by its Russian neighbour.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
” We only talk about this. It’s very difficult to see what’s going on and it’s very annoying. We can’t do anything,” says the president of the Ukrainian National Federation of Canada, Katherine Smolynec.
“Every morning, we watch the news and we have empathy for our compatriots,” she says.
Her 96-year-old father is upset. “These days, he decided to turn off the TV because it hurts him too much. He doesn’t sleep at night. He began his life in the war and he ended it with the same fears as in 1939″, laments Mme Smolynec.
Roman Serbyn, Canadian historian of Ukrainian origin and retired professor from the University of Quebec in Montreal, also has his eyes turned towards Ukraine.
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Roman Serbyn, Canadian historian of Ukrainian origin and retired professor from the University of Quebec in Montreal
We are worried about the situation, but also about the impact of Vladimir Putin’s expansionist policies on Europe, and on the world as a whole.
Roman Serbyn, Ukrainian-Canadian historian
Putin wants to fulfill Stalin’s dream of a cohesive Russia, and says Ukrainians are Russians, he says. “Ukrainians are not Russians, they speak a different language, their history is different, their culture is different. Putin dreams of assimilation, and that’s what he started in eastern Ukraine, where children are now learning they are Russians. It is a genocidal campaign that is underway. »
“Annexationists” rather than “separatists”
Mr. Serbyn is startled when it comes to “separatists” present in Ukraine. “They are not separatists, they are annexationists. They don’t want to form their own country, they want to be part of Russia. It’s not the same thing. »
According to him, Putin does not want to bomb Kiev. “He doesn’t want to physically destroy Kiev, because he considers it the first capital in Russian history. Kiev was founded long before Moscow,” he recalls.
My fear is to see Putin swallow up Ukraine piece by piece to form the homogeneous Russia he imagines.
Roman Serbyn, Ukrainian-Canadian historian
The whole world is talking about a “potential invasion”, but we must not forget that Vladimir Putin has already taken by force a substantial part of Ukraine, with the invasion of Crimea and Donbass, in 2014, explains Evhen Osidacz, a Montrealer of Ukrainian origin who closely follows the latest developments.
“If we are talking about a total Russian invasion, we are talking about tens of thousands of deaths. Not just on the Ukrainian side, but on the Russian side as well. Generations will suffer if Putin decides to move forward. »
Ukraine serves as a “buffer” between NATO and Russia, he says. “There is a huge disinformation campaign in Russia, portraying Ukraine as the aggressor. Ukraine is not an aggressor: its army is much smaller than the army of a superpower like Russia. »