'He was speaking from the heart': local reaction to Ukrainian president's speech to parliament

The local Ukrainian community and an Edmonton MP were moved by the speech Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made to the Canadian parliament Tuesday.

“The speech was very personal, you could tell he was speaking right from the heart to Canadians,” said Edmonton Riverbend MP Matt Jeneroux.

"Him using the city of Edmonton, ‘Imagine if you woke up one day with your children and bombs are going off and imagine cruise missiles hitting Edmonton, Vancouver and several of the other centres and how would you feel?’” said Andrew Hladyshevsky, a director with the Taras Shevchenko Foundation.

“He made this a very personal address, very unlike what you would see an international leader do, ‘How would you feel Justin, how would you feel members of the senate?’ and that personal feeling really struck home."

In his speech, Zelensky called on Canada to aid in imposing a no fly zone over Ukraine to protect from Russian bombings.

“To, at the very least, push for the humanitarian no fly zone is what we want the prime minister to continue to pressure NATO to do and again, keep no options off the table going forward,” said Jeneroux.

“He was very grateful for the fact that Canada has backed them for many, many years, but the sense of urgency today was not to just give accolades to the Canadian government, it was a legitimate plea for help,” added Hladyshevsky.

“The kind of plea someone makes when they feel they’re all alone, knowing that they have friends, asking their dearest friends for assistance, hoping something will happen.”

Hladyshevsky said he met Zelensky in 2019 and fondly recalled the energy and mischievous spark in his eyes the Ukrainian president had back then, a spark that was missing during Tuesday’s speech.

“His eyes really evoked a sense of urgency and pain that I did not see before,” said Hladyshevsky. “You would almost have to be inhuman not to have it effect you, only because he spoke from the heart.”

Jeneroux was also one of hundreds of Canadians, along with the prime minister, who have recently been banned from entering Russia.

"I wasn’t planning to go to Moscow anytime soon,” said Jeneroux. “I guess you had a decision to make, to support the people of Ukraine or not and I whole heartedly stand by that and if it means I’m sanctioned by the Russian Federation then so be it."

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Joe Scarpelli