On a cold February afternoon, one woman stood quietly outside Lloydminster City Hall.
No microphone. No sign demanding attention. Just silence.
For the fourth year in a row, Liliia Savchuk returned to the same spot to mark the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For her, the war did not begin in 2022. It began years earlier.
When it first changed
Savchuk remembers 2014 clearly.
Russia annexed Crimea. Fighting began in eastern Ukraine. She was still living in Ukraine at the time.
“It was very scary,” Savchuk said.
“Lies and meanness – that’s what I can say about 2014.”
At the time, many believed it would stop there.
“Then it seemed that all they needed was Crimea and Donbas,” she said. “It’s a shame this has been going on for years.”
The injustice stayed with her long after she moved to Canada.
A night that never ended
By the time Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Savchuk had been living in Canada for nearly a decade. It was late evening here when she read that bombing had begun.
She called her father first.
There was no service.
“I didn’t sleep all night,” she said. “I tried to contact my parents and relatives in Ukraine.”
The waiting was worse than the headlines.
“It is not clear who is where and whether they are safe.”
Watching from thousands of kilometres away brought a different kind of fear. She describes it in one word – helpless.
“You realize that you are safe but helpless. It is a terrible feeling. What will happen? Will Ukraine stand? How to help?”
Living with two hearts – Canada and Ukraine
Savchuk calls Canada her second homeland. Her children are safe here. She sleeps without air raid sirens.
Still, Ukraine remains home.
“It is like living with two hearts at the same time,” she said.
“One heart is grateful for Canada. I can sleep at night. My children are safe. The people here have been kind.”
“The other heart is breaking. Every time I see a peaceful park here, I think of destroyed cities in Ukraine.”
“To feel both means to be safe but never indifferent,” she said. “I carry the pain of Ukraine in my soul every single day.”
A living reminder
Savchuk began standing outside City Hall in the first year of the full-scale invasion.
She calls it being a living reminder.
“In a peaceful country like Canada, it is easy for people to forget that the war is still happening,” she said. “When people see me, they remember that my country is still fighting for their lives.”
The first year felt like shock.
“Everything felt like a raw wound,” she said.
Four years later, the silence has changed.
“It is no longer a sprint. It is a marathon,” she said. “The first year was a cry for help. The fourth year is a statement of strength.”
She chooses silence deliberately.
“Silence is my form of prayer,” Savchuk said. “Instead of screaming from pain, I turn that energy into quiet resilience. It shows that we are not broken.”
When someone stops and stands with her, even briefly, she feels less alone.
“This shared silence is more powerful than any speech.”
A family that stands together
For the past two years, Savchuk’s parents have joined her.
Her father, Bohdan, once delivered supplies to the front lines before coming to Canada. His stories made the war deeply personal.
“He showed me that even in the darkest places, a small act of kindness is a powerful light,” Savchuk said.
Bohdan told her about a soldier who kept a child’s drawing under his vest. A letter or warm meal could feel like protection.
Now she tries to carry that light here.
“If he could go to the front lines to bring hope, I can stand here for the truth,” she said.
When people ask why she stands there, she tells them about her friends. Not as statistics, but as artists, engineers, teachers and kind souls.
“By sharing who they were, I make sure they are not just a number in the news,” she said.
A message across the ocean for Ukraine
If Ukraine could hear her from the prairies of Canada, Savchuk knows what she would say.
“Distance does not make us indifferent,” she said. “Every hour I spend in silence is a message. We see you. We feel your pain. We remember you every single day.”
“Nothing is forgotten. No one is forgotten.”
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