As the Ukrainian community marks the third year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Ukrainian student groups are rallying support through fundraisers to aid those on the front lines.
The Carleton Ukrainian Students’ Club (CUSC) was among many student groups across Canada to organize a fundraiser event, in collaboration with the Ukrainian Canadian Student’s Union (SUSK).
“A lot of Ukrainian clubs at different universities are organizing the fundraiser around Canada almost at the same time before the anniversary,” said Anastasiia Kostianets, a third-year Carleton health science student and co-president of the Carleton student club.
The club organized the event at the Nideyinan Galleria on Feb. 14. Featured at the event was On the Ruins with Hope, a photo exhibit by Kostyantyn Liberovy and Vlada Liberovy, a Ukrainian couple capturing the war’s frontlines through photography.
Along with the photo exhibit, the club also sold traditional Ukrainian pastries and baked goods, including honey and chocolate cakes usually made during Christmas celebrations, which Kostianets said were made by a local Ukrainian family.
“They were also doing a fundraiser for those cakes, so they were helping us and we were helping them,” she said.
Kostianets said bake sale proceeds will be donated to MBF Support Service, a charity foundation established by Ukrainian veterans providing assistance to military personnel, civilians and animals affected by the war.
Kostianets said the Ukrainian students’ club worked in collaboration with SUSK to choose the organization receiving the donations.
“We decided to choose [MBF Support Service] because it’s a small organization,” Kostianets said. “Donations matter more to smaller organizations.”
Mikhail Shastko, a second-year Carleton music student and club member, said supporting Ukraine, even in the smallest of ways, is important.
“Every little thing is proof that [the war] is not going to be forgotten,” he said.
Amid the devastation of the war, Shastko said the photo exhibit is a call for resilience and hope for the Ukrainian community.
Looking at one photo from On the Ruins with Hope, he said Ukrainian traditional clothes – usually worn during celebrations and holidays – contrast with the machinery, ruins and Russian weaponry depicted in the background.
For Kostianets, this artistic choice “hits close to home.”
She pointed to one displayed photo of Ukrainian model Kateryna, standing in front of a monument covered with hundreds of sand bags. Kostianets said when the war started in Ukraine, people stacked the bags on historically significant buildings to protect them from destruction.
“It gives me a lot of flashbacks,” she said. “It’s such a weird photo for me because when I see Ukrainia
n traditional clothes, it reflects celebration and happiness, and then I see something behind her which is war-related and it gives a sense of anti-utopia of the two distinct realities.”
In Ukrainian literature, Kateryna is a symbol for blameless sacrifice, suffering and unbreakable strength of spirit amid destruction, according to the photo’s description.
On the Ruins with Hope captures the “invincible” spirit of Ukraine, depicted through Kateryna, who stands in the ruins of Russian military weaponry.
“Weapons are ugly, war is ugly but if we can just get to the end and preserve ourselves, whatever happens, we will be there at the end,” he said.
Along with the photo exhibit and baked goods, students could sign postcards, which will be delivered to Ukrainian soldiers at the frontlines, according to Valeriia Gusieva, a fourth-year Carleton social work student and the club’s events co-ordinator. A first round of postcards were sent in November
“A lot of soldiers at the frontlines are super young and they could have been [students] at universities before the full-scale invasion,” Gusieva said.
“Even though we’re going through a tremendous loss, people continue to fight.”
Gusieva said the second round of postcards will be delivered after SUSK finishes collecting the postcards from Ukrainian student groups across Canada.
“We got messages back from [soldiers] saying a huge thank you because they feel that they have not been forgotten,” she said. “They feel loved.”
Gusiea said their response was proof that although Ukraine is not always making headlines in major newspapers, the war is ongoing.
“Real people are still there on the battlefield and they do need our support,” she said.
Gusieva said she appreciates the photographers’ trauma-informed approach.
“People are so used to just seeing traumatic photos from the battlefield, and I feel like the photographers did such a nice job sending a [strong] message without triggering anyone,” Gusieva said.
“[The photographers] are sort of switching the narrative. Ukraine is no longer the victim but actually taking that power back.”
Shastko said the blue and yellow on the Ukrainian flag give her a sense of hope everytime she sees them.
He said the colours represent “the golden wheat fields and blue skies of Ukraine.”
Even during challenging times, he said looking at the flag reminds him what Ukraine was.
“Even if you’re in a bunker hiding, or it’s cold and dark outside … you’ll look at the flag and you see Ukraine,” he said. “You see home.”
Featured Image by Abyssinia Abebe/the Charlatan.
