Ukrainians in New Brunswick mark sombre anniversary of Russian invasion

Ukrainians in New Brunswick are reflecting on a very difficult year.

Friday marks the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of their homeland.

"I still remember that day and night when the war began," said Ganna Ivanova, who arrived in Fredericton with her family on July 1, one of 96 Ukrainian families to settle in the city in the last year.

Ivanova and her family had spent a week waiting in fear and anticipation of Russian forces coming to their city on the Black Sea coast before deciding to move to the western part of the country.

Her three-year-old daughter cried for days, insisting they return home.

Ivanova had to show the child pictures of destroyed buildings to try to make her understand it wasn't safe.

"What could I do?," she said. 

Even then, she struggled to grasp the how and why.

"She told me, 'But they are made from stones. It couldn't be destroyed.'' 

Her mother shares that confusion.

It's still hard to understand how this war can be happening between two nations that are "siblings" from "one family," said Ivanova.

Initially, she hoped the fighting would be over by the time she got off the train in Lviv. Now she has no idea how or when it may end.

"They say Russians do not give up, but Ukrainians do not give up as well," she said. "No one sees the finish for this war."

"It was pure shock," said Oksana Tesla, president of the Ukrainian Association Volya of Fredericton — Volya means freedom — as she described getting word of the attacks in a message from her mother.