Calgary rally for Ukraine skies calls for air defense systems, parts embargo on Russian missile manufacturers

A rally to defend Ukrainian skies was held Sunday afternoon in Calgary.

The event  took place at 1:30 p.m. near the Holomodor monument, located at Memorial Drive and Edmonton Trail and finished at Municipal Plaza downtown.

Organizers say they are protesting the continued shelling of Ukrainian cities by Russia, who they say have conducted 10 mass rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities in 2024 alone.

Ukrainian Canadian Congress Calgary branch board member Anna Tselukh said that the rocket attacks, which include drones and missiles, have caused massive damage to Ukraine’s civilian population and infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and kindergartens, resulting in the killing of numerous civilians, including Ukrainian children.

A rally to defend Ukrainian skies will be held at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the Holomodor Memorial in Calgary, at the intersection of Memorial Drive and Edmonton Trail

"I talked to a woman who was crying, because she was just in Kyiv one month ago and she knows how it is to hide somewhere at night with your kids," Tselukh said. "That’s difficult but this will not stop us, we have to do something."

Russia, they say, has continued to claim it doesn’t target civilian infrastructure and only attacks military targets.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress Calgary is calling on the Canadian federal government and other international entities to help disrupt Russian shelling by providing the country with modern air defense systems and ammunition.

"During the last couple years, Ukrainian military showed it could effectively use those air defense systems," Tselukh said, "but we need more, because if Russia became more active, we have to be more active defending it."

The organization also wants tighter restrictions imposed on providing components to Russia that enable them to assemble drones and missiles.

Tselukh said that despite sanctions, Russia is still finding ways to buy parts to build missiles -- many of them from Ukraine's western allies, including Canada and the U.S.

"It’s about 20 countries," she said, "so we hope that Canada as well as the international community will increase the control over those parts because if we can close the ways Russia gets those parts, then Russia will produce less missiles -- and then less people (will be) dying in Ukraine."

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Lastly, the organization wants greater enforcement of the Rome Statute, which is the code of International Criminal Court that prosecutes genocide and crimes against humanity including murder, rape, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, enslavement, sexual slavery, torture, apartheid and deportation.

The Rome Statute also includes prosecution for war crimes and crimes of aggression, which is the use of armed force by a country against the sovereignty, integrity or independence of another country.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress Calgary branch Facebook page is here.