Manitoba Ukrainian community rallies in downtown Winnipeg after latest Russian missile attack in Ukraine

July 10, 2024 Canuck

Alla Zrazhva joined a Winnipeg rally to protest the destruction of a children’s hospital in Ukraine with memories of her time working at that very hospital.

The pediatric anesthesiologist interned and worked as a doctor for two years at Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv, which was hit during a Russian missile attack on Monday.

“The doctors in the hospital are really heroes,” she said. “They tried to protect and help children when it started. They even tried to help them outside the hospital.”

About 130 members of Manitoba’s Ukrainian community rallied in downtown Winnipeg on Tuesday evening to protest the missile attack and the levelling of a building at the country’s largest children’s hospital.

Zrazhva, who left Ukraine about nine months ago, wore a Ukrainian flag draped over her shoulders at the demonstration near Portage and Notre Dame avenues.

A total of 44 deaths have been reported from the attacks on Ukraine, including four children and two people at the children’s hospital — the deadliest series of airstrikes Ukraine has had in months.

A large crowd of people hold up pieces of metal from a children's hospital that was hit by a missile in Ukraine. — People work at the site of Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday. (Evgeniy Maloletka/The Associated Press)

A United Nations rights mission said there was a “high likelihood” that the hospital took a direct hit from a Russian missile.

The Kremlin said, without providing evidence, that Ukrainian anti-missile fire, not Russia, hit the children’s hospital, Reuters reported.

Dr. Svitlana Lukianchuk was working to make sure everyone got to a shelter when she was killed by the blast, a hospital official told Reuters. She was one of two people, both adults, who were killed at the hospital.

Lukianchuk was an “amazing” nephrologist, a doctor who specializes in diagnosing and treating kidney conditions, said Zrazhva, although she didn’t know her personally.

Zrazhva said Okhmatdyt translates to “protecting mothers and children” and the hospital was a second home to many sick children in Ukraine. There were more than 600 children at the hospital when it was hit, the country’s health minister told The Associated Press.

“Yesterday’s attack was terrible,” she said. “It is the most awful, awful situation that can happen with our country.”

A group of protestors stand on a platform with Ukrainian flags draped across their shoulders. — People at the rally sang the Ukrainian national anthem and had a moment of silence to honour the 44 people who died after a Russian missile hit a number of cities in Ukraine on Monday. (Tessa Adamski/CBC)

The patients at Okhmatdyt children’s hospital were transferred to other medical facilities in Ukraine and rubble was still being cleared from nearly 100 buildings damaged during the barrage, including the children’s hospital, a maternity centre, college, business centre and homes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the social media platform X.

At the Winnipeg rally, about 16 children stood on a platform holding signs that said things such as “Children Continue to Die in Ukraine” and “Yesterday Russia Dropped Missiles on Children My Age,” with teddy bears and unlit candles lying at their feet.

People waved Ukrainian flags and sang the country’s national anthem and other Ukrainian songs.

The rally was a reminder to people across the province that attacks on Ukraine are still occurring more than 28 months into Russia’s full-scale invasion, said Ukrainian Resistance Winnipeg volunteer Mariana Sklepowich, who spoke at the protest.

“It’s crucial to finally find some concrete ways to stop Russia and its aggression and its genocidal acts that it’s perpetuating against Ukraine,” Sklepowich said.

Ukrainian Resistance Winnipeg was formed two years ago to raise awareness about the atrocities in Ukraine and to encourage people to stand with Ukraine, she said.

A hospital room is in ruins after a missile hit it in Ukraine. — A photo shows damage inside part of Okhmatdyt children’s hospital after an air strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday. The Russian air attack killed at least 44 people, authorities say. (Evgeniy Maloletka/The Associated Press)

For Sklepowich, hearing the news about the Russian attack on Monday was like reliving the first few days of the war all over again — she feels a sense of dread and hopelessness.

“The constant barrage of these attacks is going to have such intergenerational traumatic effects that it’s mind-boggling to think about, so it can get overwhelming at times to really process it all,” she said.

Sklepowich has family members living in Ukraine, including a cousin with a nine-year-old daughter who hears daily air raid sirens.

Halyna Shtoyko, who attended the rally with her nine-year-old daughter and four-year-old son, said they went to Ukraine in September to visit family, including her cousin’s two-year-old.

“Every single time we hear bad news, we think about them, so it’s really scary,” she said, wiping tears from her face.

Shtoyko’s heart breaks for the children who have died in Ukraine.

“Russia is like a cancer on the border of Ukraine, and there is a cure, and that cure is to give Ukraine the ammunition it needs to fight the terrorism, to be able to strike back, because right now, Ukrainian kids — children like mine — are being killed,” she said.

It’s easy for people to scroll over news about Ukraine and what’s going on, but that doesn’t mean the war will suddenly stop, Shtoyko said.

“I realize that it’s been ongoing and it’s not shocking news anymore, but I think people need to educate themselves about what’s going on, and if we don’t care as humanity, then where are we going?”

A large group of protestors hold signs supporting Ukraine while facing a group of children who are also holding signs. — A group of protesters faces about 16 children holding signs such as ‘Children Continue to Die in Ukraine” and “Yesterday Russia Dropped Missiles on Children My Age” as teddy bears and unlit candles lay at their feet. (Tessa Adamski/CBC)

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Manitoba Ukrainian community rallies in downtown Winnipeg after latest Russian missile attack in Ukraine

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