Ukrainians in Canada react to Trump’s comments on the prospects for peace

Frustrating. Devastating.  That’s how Tetiana Prykhodko reacted when she heard about U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to end the war in Ukraine, following his telephone conversation this week with Russian President Vladamir Putin.

During the election campaign, Trump promised to quickly end the war.

On Wednesday, Trump said he and Putin spent an hour on the phone and agreed to begin peace negotiations — and they promised to meet soon face to face.

At first non-committal about Ukraine being given a seat at the negotiating table, on Thursday Trump said Ukraine would be there.  But officials with his administration have also said NATO membership will not be on the table and it is unrealistic for Ukraine to expect to given back all the land it has lost to Russia during the war — about a fifth of Ukrainian territory.

Prykhodko, one of tens of thousands of Ukrainians who fled to Canada following the start of the war, said all Ukrainians want peace, but she asks, “At what cost?”

“People are still being killed and are suffering — especially in the eastern parts of Ukraine,” said Prykhodko who was forced to flee her home town of Chernihiv, near the border with Russia and Belarus, on the day Putin ordered his army to invade.

“When all the talking on TV was about, ‘you have to pack,’ I didn’t actually take it seriously,” added Prykhodko.  “After I heard the sirens, and after I saw smoke from my window (I realized) it’s not a joke and we decided to move out. I have a sister in the western part of Ukraine and she called me that day and said. ‘You are coming to our place,’ so that is what we did.”

“Lots of nearby villages suffered.  Little girls being raped,  people were killed, those who were imprisoned — awful things.  I know really bad stories and it’s really hard to talk about them,” said Prykhodko.

2:45
‘I don’t see any logic in this war except to destroy and kill people’: The trauma for survivors in war-torn Chernihiv, Ukraine

Realizing the war would last a lot longer than Putin originally boasted about, her family applied for, and were granted, visas to come to Canada. “My husband has a sister here and she told us, ‘You are coming here.’”

The reception her family has received in Canada has been “amazing,” said Prykhokdo.  “Canada has been a wonderful place to come, and we received so much support and care.”

While she, like most Ukrainians, yearns to one day return home, she is not optimistic about the prospects for peace under Trump’s and Putin’s terms.

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It is “like a feeling of no way out — it will never end in a good way and that makes me sad — that is frustrating and devastating,” said Prykhokdo.

“An overwhelming sense of disappointment — utter betrayal,” is how Stephania Romaniuk, vice-president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, describes the reaction of Calgary’s Ukrainian community to Trump’s comments on the terms for peace.

“There’s so many lives that have been lost, not just people who’ve been killed, civilians, the military in Ukraine, but lives that have been shattered and destroyed,” said Romaniuk.

“Perhaps we’re going to negotiate a peace, but at the cost of everything that these people have been fighting for.”

While she is pleased Ukraine will be at the negotiating table, she fears Trump is “falling into Putin’s trap” — adding NATO membership for Ukraine is really the only guarantee against future Russian aggression.

“We know that Russian diplomacy means nothing when Putin comes to the table,” said Romaniuk.  “You can probably be guaranteed that he’s going to do the exact opposite of what he commits to — any peace deals are only going to be temporary, they’re going to be an opportunity for Russia to strengthen its forces, to prepare once again to mobilize.

“Whether it’s five, 10, 15 years from now, they’re going to come again.”

Romaniuk believes what’s happening in Ukraine should also be a warning for Canada.

“We share a border with Russia. As Russia feels emboldened, if the results of these peace talks show to them that they can take what they want, they are not going to stop there.”

“There are resources in the Arctic — certainly the changing environment is going to have an impact on what can be extracted from there, so I think that Canada needs to be prepared.”

For Prykhodko and her family, it’s like a horror movie that won’t stop.

“The peace that the Russians are offering — my biggest fear is I will have nowhere to come back to.  The territories that are close to the eastern border, they are devastated, there is no house —  just ruins. I’m scared about that.”

“The place of your childhood, your best memories.  My biggest fear is that the Ukraine will become Russia.”

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Video shows moments after Russian troops allegedly shoot civilians standing in line for food in Chernihiv

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