The Ukrainians in Canada react to Trump’s comments on peace perspectives

Frustrating. Devastating. Thus Tetiana Prykhodko reacted when he heard about the plans of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, of ending the war in Ukraine, after his telephone conversation this week and the Russian president Vladamir Putin.

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

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

At first not compromised about Ukraine, he was given a seat at the negotiating table, Trump said Ukraine would be there. But the officials of their administration have also said that the NATO membership will not be on the table and that it is not realistic that Ukraine expects to return all the land that has lost Russia during the war, approximately one fifth of the Ukrainian territory.

Prykhodko, one of tens of thousands of Ukrainians who fled to Canada after the beginning of the war, said that all Ukrainians want peace, but asks: “At what cost?”

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

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

“Many nearby villages suffered. Girls are raped, people were killed, which were imprisoned, horrible things. I know really bad stories and it’s really difficult to talk about them, “said Prykhodko.

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“I see no logic in this war, except to destroy and kill people”: trauma for survivors in Chernihiv torn by war, Ukraine

Upon realizing that the war would last much more than Putin originally boasted, his family requested, and were granted, visas to come to Canada. “My husband has a sister here and she told us: ‘You’re here'”.

The reception that his family has received in Canada has been “incredible,” said Prykhokdo. “Canada has been a wonderful place to come, and we receive a lot of support and care.”

While she, like most Ukrainians, longs for her to return home, is not optimistic about the perspectives of peace under the terms of Trump and Putin.

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It is “as a feeling of any exit, will never end in good sense and that saddens me, that is frustrating and devastating,” said Prykhokdo.

“An overwhelming feeling of disappointment, an absolute betrayal,” is how Stephania Romaniuk, vice president of the Canadian Congress of Ukraine, describes the reaction of the Ukrainian community of Calgary to Trump’s comments on the terms of peace.

“There are so many lives that have been lost, not only people who have been killed, civilians, military in Ukraine, but lives that have been destroyed and destroyed,” Romaniuk said.

“Perhaps we are going to negotiate a peace, but at the expense of everything that these people have been fighting.”

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

“We know that Russian diplomacy means nothing when Putin arrives at the table,” Romaniuk said. “It can probably be guaranteed that he will do exactly the opposite of what he is committed: any peace agreement will only be temporary, it will be an opportunity for Russia to strengthen its forces, to prepare once again to mobilize.

“It’s already five, 10, in 15 years, they will return.”

Romaniuk believes that what is 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 conversations show them that they can take what they want, they will not stop there.

“There are resources in the Arctic, certainly the changing environment will have an impact on what can be extracted from there, so I think Canada must be prepared.”

For Prykhodko and his family, it is like a horror movie that will not stop.

“The peace that the Russians are offering: my greatest fear is that I will not have where to return. The territories that are close to the eastern border are devastated, there is no house, only ruins. I’m afraid of that.

“The place of your childhood, your best memories. My greatest fear is that Ukraine becomes Russia. “

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The video shows moments after the Russian troops allegedly shoot civilians in the food tail in Chernihiv

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