Ukrainian Montrealers fear full-scale Russian invasion could be imminent

Until recently, when Montrealer Tetyana Tsomko would call friends and family back in Ukraine, they would chat about their weekends, how the relatives were doing and what the kids were up to these days. 

Now their conversations are filled with talk of bomb shelters, air raid siren tests, children doing emergency drills at school and the looming threat of armed conflict with Russia. 

"Last week, the stress level really augmented incredibly," said Tsomko, who moved to Montreal twelve years ago with her husband and daughter and is originally from Chortkiv in Ternopil Oblast, in Western Ukraine. 

"The situation is changing hour by hour." 

Tsomko is one of tens of thousands of Quebecers of Ukrainian descent, who are watching anxiously as Russian President Vladimir Putin orders forces into breakaway regions of Eastern Ukraine.

Monday, Putin recognized the independence of the regions Donetsk and Luhansk in Eastern Ukraine and ordered Russian forces to "maintain peace" in those regions. On Tuesday, Russian lawmakers authorized Putin to use military force outside the country, bringing the possibility of a full-scale conflict even closer.

While 18-year-old Montrealer Arsene Pivtorak has tried to stay focused on his studies, he finds himself fully invested in following the escalating conflict in his home country, and fact-checking fast-spreading rumours and reports, sometimes even amongst his peers.

"I have Russian friends. And in the Russian media, they say that they are going to free Ukraine, that, you know, it's not a war, it's peace," said Pivtorak, an international studies student at CÉGEP du Vieux Montréal. 

"All the disinformation that is happening, I'm trying to counter it as I can."

"When you compare … the danger of losing your country with losing some time on your homework, I mean the choice is evident," he said.

Pivtorak, who moved to Montreal with his family when he was 11, worries about family back home, though they are also in the western part of the country. 

"I don't want to see them die in a war that is provoked by some geopolitical crazy man, you know, a former KGB agent that wants to bring the U.S.S.R. back," he said. 

That concern is echoed by Michael Shwec, president of the Quebec chapter of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, who fears Putin is set on dismantling Ukraine "bit by bit."

"Nobody wants war, but for some reason Putin has now decided he's going to invade his neighbour," said Shwec.