Ukrainians in N.L. gather at Confederation Building to reflect on 1st anniversary of Russian invasion

It's been one year since the sounds of explosions and air raid sirens signalled a change in life for Hanna Furs.

She spent the early days of the Russian invasion scared for her life, and the life of her eight-year-old son. She jumped every time the refrigerator cut in or there was a knock on the door. 

Now safe in her adopted home of St. John's, Furs is reflecting on everything lost or forever altered since the invasion began one year ago. She remembers the feelings of confusion and fear after fleeing to Italy last March.

"It's hard to stay safe, because you don't know your future," she said. "You don't know where your kids [will be] tomorrow. You lost your life. You lost your friends. You lost your parents. You lost your house."

When the shock began to wear off, Furs said people started reaching out to their friends to see where people had fled. She realized her dear friend, Oksana Makarenko, was nearby in Italy. 

Makarenko told her she was thinking about going to Canada, and they began doing research. 

Furs, Makarenko and their children are some of the more than 2,000 Ukrainians to have found a new home in Newfoundland and Labrador over the last year. Their arrival has helped change the cultural fabric of the province, which is mired in a demographic crisis and has struggled to meet immigration targets for several years.

The two women joined the fledgling Ukrainian Cultural Organization of Newfoundland and Labrador, founded by St. John's business strategist Bruce Lilly. Iryna Pegasina, who fled Ukraine to Bulgaria during the war and eventually came to St. John's, joined as well. 

The group held an event marking one year since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine at 5:30 p.m. Friday, at the east block of Confederation Building in St. John's.

"When your country is in such state, in state of war, and you understand that any day can be, like, the last... you try to make something so your culture might grow and might bloom in some other places," said Makarenko at Friday's event, who says she's trying to share Ukrainian culture here in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Friday's event was one of more than 40 to 50 vigils happening across the country. Confederation Building was filled with hundreds of people Friday, many of them Ukrainian.

"I was scared about my son," said Furs about the start of the war. "It was stressful... It was like bad dream."

"My family in Ukraine, my husband now in Ukraine," said Pegasina at the event. "It's very difficult emotional."

The three women think a lot about how the war has affected their children. Initially, Pegasina said, the goal was to shield them.