Canadians on Ukraine's front lines face bitter cold, share stories of resilience

As the war in Ukraine enters its fifth year, some on the front lines with ties to Saskatchewan say the war is not going anywhere.

The night before Mac Hughes and his dad Paul Hughes spoke to Saskatoon Morning host Candice Lipski, a Shahed drone flew into the apartment next to his at 3 a.m., Mac said.

"The war has definitely not let up in any way," he said.

The father-son pair are both based in Ukraine. Paul, a former Canadian soldier who grew up partly in Lanigan, Sask., went to Ukraine to fight and has been there since the early days of Russia's full-scale invasion.

He says his son joined him there not long afterwards.

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Very few Ukrainians have any confidence that a ceasefire is coming, he said, "because they're dealing with Putin and they know their neighbour better than anybody else in the world."

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"It's been a very difficult winter, the most difficult so far," he said.

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Canadian humanitarian aid worker Angela Hill agrees.

After returning to Saskatoon from a recent trip to Ukraine with the Red Cross, Hill told Saskatchewan Weekend host Shauna Powers it's the worst cold the country has seen in about a decade.

"People regularly said that this is the hardest it's been since the beginning of the escalation," Hill said.

She said she's made several trips to Ukraine and for this one, she visited several places with projects and people supported by the Canadian Red Cross.

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