Since public protests against political corruption in Kiev’s Independence Square turned deadly, Tetiana Lytvynenko has spent much of her time engrossed in the unfolding events in Ukraine.
The Davidson wife and mother monitors Ukrainian news websites and uses social media to communicate with friends and family back home in Ukraine.
The uncertainty in Ukraine, particularly since last weekend when Russian troops began occupying the Crimean peninsula, has caused the Lytvynenkos to cancel a planned trip to Ukraine. They had hoped to fly home in April to visit family.
“I found a good deal on tickets the day before they (Ukrainian police) started shooting in Kiev,” Tetiana said. “After it settled in Kiev, our relatives said it seems to be OK”.
Then Russian troops entered Crimea.
Tetiana said her family advised her to put the trip on hold.
“Since the end of February and the beginning of March, when the Russian parliament gave (Russian President Vladimir) Putin permission to send troops to Ukraine, people are holding their breath and hoping there will be no war,” she said.
Nick and Tetiana Lytvynenko have lived in Davidson for over five years. Nick, an autobody technician, came to Canada to work at Legend’s Autobody and Tetiana followed soon after.
They have made the most of the opportunities in Canada. They own a home where they are raising their two Canadian-born children: Nina, who is almost three, and nine-month-old Ivan.
Although Saskatchewan is now home, the crisis in their homeland has Tetiana worried about her homeland.
She’s been closely following the news and speaks daily, via Skype, to her parents who live about a three-hour’s drive north of Kiev. She’s upset by what she sees.
“Sometimes Nina says, ‘Mom, don’t cry.’ I don’t cry all the time, but to see people gunned down in the square…to see people who have to die for our president to resign…”
Since November 2013, pro-European Union Ukrainians have gathered in Kiev’s Independence Square to protest political corruption and then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Russian measures. It is estimated that more than 100 Ukrainian people were killed during the deadly days of the protest from Feb. 19 -20 and thousands were wounded. Some of the injured have since died in hospital of gunshot wounds.
“It was horrible to imagine that the president would give such an order to the snipers to start shooting your own people,” Tetiana said. “I never thought it would happen that (their) own government would use violence against people.”
Yanukovych disappeared and then turned up in Russia. Shortly after, Russian troops began occupying Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
Now Tetiana and the rest of the world are wondering if this means war.
Tetiana puts the blame on Putin, not Russians.
To read more please see the March 10 print edition of The Davidson Leader.