‘Ukraine’s war is our war’ says Brampton native and Ukraine ambassador
Published April 6, 2022 at 10:55 am
Canada’s ambassador to Ukraine and Brampton native Larisa Galadza has shared a message of hope with her hometown as the Russian war in Ukraine rages on.
Speaking to Brampton City Council on Wednesday, Father Roman Galadza of Brampton’s St. Elias The Prophet Ukrainian Catholic Church read a letter from his daughter, Larisa, who is in Kyiv serving as Canada’s ambassador to Ukraine.
The ambassador thanked Bramptonians and Canadians for their support and addressed recent reports of atrocities allegedly committed by Russian forces against civilians.
The following is a portion of Ambassador Galadza’s address as read by her father in Brampton council chambers on Wednesday, April 6.
“For the record, what we are witnessing taking a palace in Ukraine today is historic, and I mean that in two ways.
It is historic in that it will go down in history as one of Europe’s horrific wars, and it is historic in that Ukraine has seen this before.
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I and many other Ukrainian-Canadians are here in Canada because our parents fled Ukraine when it was clear that Soviet Russia had no use for Ukrainians.
No doubt you have heard of the Holodomor – the genocide by famine that took palce in the ‘30s – millions dead. Or about how Ukrainian language, culture and religion were violently suppressed in the Soviet Union and before.
For some reason, Ukraine would not be permitted to exist.
Today we see history repeating itself.
The tactics Russia is employing today are not the tactics of an army looking to create a buffer zone for their own security purposes – and that, some of us could understand, but these tactics are not those.
What is being uncovered now – the tortures, executions and rapes – are the tacitcs of an army under orders to destroy a nation; destory a people.
Even experts in the field of genocide studies, who are by proffession caustious about using the word genocide, call what is happening today exactly that.
It is a comfort and reassurance that those living in free and democratic societies don’t need to be experts in anything to know that…Putin’s ongoing war required a swift and unprecedented response.
Ukraine’s war is our war. And the people of Canada, including us here in Brampton have understood that.
Those of us with a personal connection to Ukraine thank you immensely for the support and we hope that I can be sustained, will be sustained, until the war is ended and the troops can return to their homes within their borders.
And Ukraine and Ukrainians free themselves to be permitted to enjoy the peace and prosperity and harmony that is enjoyed by us here in Canada in general, and Brampton in particular.
May what we have be enjoyed by them as well.”
Brampton’s Ukrainian community and St. Elias The Prophet Ukrainian Catholic Church are asking the community to help support the people of Ukraine by making humanitarian donations at www.stopputin.net.
The war in Ukraine has rallied other communities to the cause, with members of Brampton’s Vietnamese community and the Thoi Bao Community Fund raising nearly $38,000 for the Red Cross to support humanitarian efforts.
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