Edmonton’s Ukrainian community wants Russian association uninvited from Heritage Festival

Some members of Edmonton’s Ukrainian community are calling for a ban of the Russian pavilion from the Heritage Festival in August.

The community wants the festival to rescind its invitation to the Russian Heritage Cultural Development Association over the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress penned an open letter to festival organizers earlier this week calling on the Russian pavilion to be banned from this year’s festival over what they say is a failure to condemn the war.

The UCC also put out a similar call and petition in late May.

The president of the Edmonton chapter of the UCC tells CityNews no Russian cultural group or association in the city has officially condemned the war.

“The organizing community has to be more vocal,” said Yaroslav Broda. “I invite them to be louder, I invite them to be organized, to take a lead in their community.”

CityNews reached out to the Russian Heritage Cultural Development Association but did not immediately hear back.

With the festival set for Aug. 5-6 at the Edmonton Expo grounds, organizers of the event said, in an email, they’re still a few days away from a decision.

Last year organizers of the Russian pavilion withdrew from the festival on their own accord.

Russian forces have recently stepped up aerial strikes in their nearly 16-month war, a Ukrainian military spokesman said. The country’s armed forces, meanwhile, have reported limited gains in the early stages of a counteroffensive to take back the nearly one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory that is under Russian control.

The grinding Ukrainian advance is pressing slowly ahead, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister said last week. Western analysts and military officials say the effort to dislodge entrenched, powerfully armed and large numbers of Russian troops could take years.

—With files from The Associated Press