300 people gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa <\/a>as the Ukrainian Canadian Congress commemorated four years since the invasion, one of 60 events planned nationwide.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, the Canada-Ukraine Foundation says it has raised more than $100 million for humanitarian aid but wants Ottawa to match donations as demand for food, medical equipment and generators continues.<\/p>\n
Gratitude, but uncertainty<\/p>\n
While Canada offered refuge, Pyshuk says many Ukrainians now face an uncertain immigration future as temporary work permits approach expiry.<\/p>\n
Some qualify for permanent residency through family or employment pathways. Others do not.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey already totally settled,\u201d she said. \u201cThey love North Battleford, they love Saskatchewan. They have their kids studying here. They are already employed. They enjoy their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet without permanent status, some may eventually have to leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes there is even no home to come back to,\u201d she said, noting that eastern parts of Ukraine have been heavily destroyed.<\/p>\n
Her concerns echo those heard across Saskatchewan\u2019s Ukrainian community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important that we recognize that they\u2019re actually not immigrants,\u201d said Danylo Puderak, executive director of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress of Saskatchewan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ukrainians that are here are here because of an invasion that Russia launched four years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said those who arrived did so under the CUAET program, created to help people displaced by the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis program was to assist displaced Ukrainians, and that\u2019s really who they are, people that had to flee their homeland, their country, because of the invasion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Puderak estimates between 8,000 and 9,000 displaced Ukrainians have come to Saskatchewan since the war began, part of nearly 300,000 who arrived in Canada through the program over the past four years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of the Ukrainians that are in the province now are making it their home, and they want to stay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As immigration targets tighten, he said, many are now competing for permanent residency through economic streams despite arriving under a humanitarian program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s probably not so fair,\u201d Puderak said.<\/p>\n
Living between two worlds<\/p>\n
As the fighting enters its fifth year, Pyshuk says Ukrainians in Canada continue supporting loved ones from afar, often donating money or sending financial help home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just hope for the best,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Canada, she added, has offered something immeasurable during a time of upheaval.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanadians are the most welcoming people we\u2019ve ever met,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are very grateful for all the opportunities that government provided to them and the safety that government provided to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly four years after war uprooted her life, Pyshuk moves between two realities \u2013 one grounded in the quiet streets of North Battleford, the other in a country still under bombardment \u2013 carrying gratitude for her safety here and hope that one day the distance between those worlds will no longer be defined by war.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a BBC interview released Feb. 23, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of the broader global stakes of the conflict, saying, \u201cPutin has already started the Third World War.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way to make him step back is through strong military power and economic sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of February 2026, there is no official end date for the war.<\/p>\n
-With files from The Canadian Press-<\/p>\n
\u2014<\/p>\n
Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, a move widely seen as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-495704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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