Ukrainians in Toronto look on as violence rages amid Russian invasion
CBC
Varvara Shmygalova is faced with a horrifying reality every time she picks up the phone to call her family in Ukraine.
Since Russian forces invaded her home country, the Toronto resident can't be sure anyone will be alive to answer her calls.
"You just really hope they're not dead yet," Shmygalova told CBC News.
She spoke to her grandmother and grandfather Thursday, both of whom are in their mid 80s. The two were in an underground garage next to their home at the time, because it was the only place they could go to seek shelter as fighting rages and bombs fall.
"They're just telling me, 'It's OK, don't cry, we lived a good life. It's OK if we die, you have to be fine.' And I can't be fine. Why [is] my 85-year-old grandma is telling me that it's OK that's she's going to die?"
Missiles pounded the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Friday, as Russian forces pressed their advance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with the international community to do more, saying sanctions against Russia announced so far were not enough.
Air raid sirens wailed over the city of three million people a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion that has shocked the world.
Back in Toronto, Ukrainians wait with their stomachs in knots, knowing the danger facing their families.
GTA resident Olena Shkarovska told CBC Radio's Metro Morning Friday that she is doing what she can do stay calm, as her brother, Denis Shkarovskyi, returned to Kyiv on Friday to enlist in the army because he feels he has no choice but to protect his country.
"Of course I feel very sad and frightened, but I understand that it's the duty of every citizen to protect their country, and I only regret that we live in a time that we have to do this," she said.
Shkarovskyi had been working as a lawyer, and spent most of his days in an office in the centre of Kyiv, or a courtroom.
Now, he is talking matter-of-factly about gathering weapons, medicine, food and warm clothes.
"It is my duty," he told Metro Morning host Ismaila Alfa Friday. "I must protect my country … I can't decide any other way."
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