A year of atrocities
One year ago, on Feb. 24, 2022, Russian military equipment began rolling across the borders into Ukraine in what was supposed to be a short campaign to overthrow Kyiv.
One year later the war rages on. As many as 100,000 people have been killed or wounded on each side, including more than 18,500 civilians. More than 8 million Ukrainians have fled their homeland and millions more who remain in Ukraine do so without electricity or a source of heat due to bombed infrastructure. There is no end in sight.
On Feb. 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to continue the invasion and used the threat of nuclear weapons to pressure western countries to withdraw support for Ukraine.
It is difficult to see an ending to this conflict where Russia backs down and no more lives are destroyed. For Canadians, there are parallels to the war in Afghanistan where tens of thousands of Canadian Armed Forces soldiers served for 14 years and Ottawa spent $18 billion in fighting and reconstruction efforts, only to have the country revert to a worse situation than it was in before the campaign.
But leaving Ukraine to defend itself against Russia is also not an option.
This is not just a political disagreement about where the borders should be marked on a map; this invasion has evolved into a human rights crisis which Ukraine's allies must confront.
The United Nations has found evidence of Russian soldiers committing war crimes including rape, torture, executions and confinement of children.
Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 17 that his office has recorded 80,000 crimes committed by Russian soldiers and 9,000 Ukrainian civilians have died in the conflict, including 453 children.
Yermak said, "We will not forgive a single (act of) torture or life taken. Each criminal will be held accountable.”
Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly also spoke about “addressing the issue of crimes against humanity, war crimes, the crime of aggression, and also sexual violence related crimes,” on Feb. 16, after a two-day visit to Ukraine.
Ottawa has committed more than $5 billion to Ukraine since the invasion began, including more than $1.2 billion in military spending.
Canada has also welcomed hundreds of Ukrainian families under an emergency travel visa that lets Ukrainians live, work and study here, as well as travel back and forth to their home country.
One of the people who has taken advantage of that program is Margo Sobolieva, 25, who is working as an interpreter in St. John's.
“(People) sometimes forget there's a war on there and that it isn't stopping. It's not just from bombing to bombing, it's going on all the time,” Sobolieva told SaltWire Network in October.
“It's important for people to know what's going on because, as soon as we forget about that, the more things are going to happen.”
Canada, and Ukraine's other western allies, cannot allow that to come to pass.