'Celebration of bravery': Ukrainian living in Victoria reflects on war's 1-year anniversary

Friday marked the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine. Oksana Teplyakova, who is from Mariupol, doesn’t like to use that term.

“It’s a kind of celebration of bravery,” she said, fighting back tears.

“I’m sorry, I’m getting emotional.”

Her home city in the southeast of Ukraine now sits in ruins.

“Some of my friends who are still living there, they tell me that when you walk there you can have this corpse smell,” she said.

Teplyakova, then pregnant, fled Ukraine at the beginning of the war with her mother.

After a 10-month stay in Poland, she arrived in Canada at the end of January and now lives at the Kiwanis Ukrainian Village in Victoria.

Her son Daniil is now nine months old.

The small family is part of an estimated 8.1-million people who have left Ukraine since Russia invaded.

An estimated 9,000 civilians have lost their lives, and military losses – including the wounded – are being pegged at more than 200,000 on the Russian side and 100,000 on the Ukrainian side.

“It’s difficult to find the correct words,” said Andriy Fabrikov, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Cultural Society of Vancouver Island.

Rallies and vigils we held around the world, across Canada and at the B.C. legislature building Friday.

“To pay our tribute to our defenders and our people who lost their lives during these recent unfortunate events,” said Fabrikov.

“We are sure that we will win because we are the country that protects our own lands,” said Oksana’s mother, through her daughter's translation.

The grandmother said she would like to one day return to Ukraine. Oksana is unsure what the future will bring for her and her young son.

“As for Mariupol, maybe there’s an option to come back, but not for many moons, years and there is a condition, if no Russia is there,” she said.

For now, the family is safe and happy on Vancouver Island, but they hoping that one year from now, they won’t be reflecting on the second anniversary of an ongoing war back home.