Dennis Zachernuk has been glued to his computer over the past few days as he watches the horror of the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold.
Zachernuk’s father was born in Ukraine.
His father’s father was conscripted into the Polish infantry and was captured in the first days of the Second World War. He spent the war in a prisoner of war camp.
After the war, Zachernuk’s grandfather didn’t go back to Ukraine, but he and his wife and two sons waited for three years on the coast until it was their turn to emigrate to Canada. They ended up in Alberta.
Zachernuk noted the prairie provinces were similar to the landscape in Ukraine, so many Ukrainians emigrated. They had been welcomed since Confederation because they knew how to farm the land.
Zachernuk’s dad fell in love and married a woman who was not Ukrainian, so their four sons, one of whom was Dennis, didn’t speak Ukrainian at home. However, they did learn some Ukrainian and would hear it when they frequently visited their grandparents.
Dennis speaks fondly of doing Ukrainian dances and eating Ukrainian food.
The dances would involve lifting up his partner, throwing her around, then leaping in the air and touching his toes, he said smiling.
“It was lots of fun.”
He enjoyed and still enjoys eating Ukrainian food such as pirohi’s (perogies) and borscht.
He also remembers the importance of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church.
Asked about his reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he said it’s not a new idea.
“It’s strongly connected to history over centuries of Russians saying there is no such thing as Ukraine; it goes back hundreds of years. It’s not a new thing Mr. Putin made up,” he said.
“And Ukrainians of course, insist, yes we are separate – a different language, a slightly different history.
“There has been Ukraine for a thousand years, and Russians for 1,000 years have said, no, you’re not Ukrainians, you’re actually Russians.”
Read more: Russia ignores global condemnation, invades Ukraine in ‘brutal act of war’
Zachernuk’s father is no longer alive but his mother lives in Halifax. He speaks to her regularly and she, too, is following closely the devastating news from overseas.
Zachernuk said he doesn’t have relatives he’s met in Ukraine, but his mother and father made a couple of trips there when it was part of the Soviet republic, the USSR.
He said his parents came back with lots of stories. His father didn’t agree with the view his relatives had been taught that the USSR was a superior nation, so his mother would tell his dad he really didn’t have to get into arguments about it with them every time he visited.
His father always instructed his sons to think critically about issues, to speak and stand up for their beliefs, Zachernuk said.
Zachernuk noted the name of the country is Ukraine, not ‘the’ Ukraine as Russia would call it. He said it’s important to use the correct name – just like you wouldn’t say, ‘the’ Canada.
Zachernuk described Putin as a very nasty man and said he thinks Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is handling Canada’s response to the invasion well so far.
“I think he’s navigating the constraints he faces very appropriately and carefully. We don’t want Canada to go to war and we don’t want Ukraine run by Putin.”
Read more: ‘People want peace’: Leader of Canada’s Doukhobors laments Russian invasion of Ukraine
martha.wickett@saobserver.net
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