Alberta's Ukrainian community comes together to support each other, family overseas

After weeks of worrying about a threatened invasion of Ukraine by Russia, many Albertans spent a sleepless night Wednesday, trying to contact friends and family after news reports confirmed it had happened.

"It was a very disturbing evening," said Orysia Boychuk, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Alberta Provincial Council (UCC-APC).

Boychuk was on the phone late Wednesday with loved ones in western Ukraine who heard bombings at a nearby airport, she told a Thursday news conference.

On Thursday, Ukrainian forces battled Russian invaders on three sides after Moscow mounted an assault by land, sea and air in the biggest attack on a European state since the Second World War.

Alberta is home to many people with connections to the eastern European country. More than 345,000 Albertans have Ukrainian heritage, according to the provincial government.

Shortly after news of the Russian invasion broke Wednesday, Father Cornell Zubritsky opened up the Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist church in central Edmonton, offering space for those who needed to pray. 

"Edmonton has a large Ukrainian-Canadian population and a large population of new Ukrainian-Canadians, so this is very real and very raw for them," he said.

"I felt that we needed to do this and reach out to the community in this way."

Ukraine, a democratic country of 44 million people with more than 1,000 years of history, is Europe's biggest nation by area after Russia itself. It voted overwhelmingly for independence after the fall of the Soviet Union and aims to join NATO and the European Union, aspirations that infuriate Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called Ukraine an artificial creation carved from Russia by its enemies, a characterization Ukrainians call shocking and false.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Putin's aim was to destroy his state.

"Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself and won't give up its freedom, no matter what Moscow thinks," Zelensky said on Twitter.

A University of Alberta professor says Ukrainian-Russian relations are very special. 

"Now it seems like we are facing the last periods of the agony of the Soviet system," said Volodymyr Kravchenko, professor and director of the Contemporary Ukraine Studies programs at the University of Alberta.