Tuesday afternoon, the City of Dauphin raised a Ukrainian flag to honour the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence from the former Soviet Union.
Deputy Mayor Christian Laughland was in attendance and started the ceremony by briefly speaking about the flag raising and its meaning to the community.
"Ukraine's a huge part of the community. I mean, with Canada's National Ukrainian Festival and just an overall year-round presence in Dauphin, Ukraine is huge, and Ukraine means a lot to the city and really the residence within the city too."
Jan Sirski, Vice President of Canada's National Ukrainian Festival, ended the ceremony by giving a speech about the significance of the day.
"The flag-raising basically is a commemorative expression of our connection to Ukraine and just the respect that we have for our forefathers and the country of Ukraine where our forefathers came from and all the values the people brought with them, and also as a commemoration of the struggles that Ukraine is undergoing now too. Their 30 years of independence is a very short time for many countries, but it's recognition of the struggles that the country had to go through to achieve independence and to remain independent as well cause they're dealing with a lot of factors right now to maintain their independence too. So It's basically a symbol of respect too. I really appreciate the city and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress for acknowledging that and bringing that to the forefront, and it's a day to recognize that."
Jan revealed in her speech that there would be a Ukrainian flag the size of a football field coming to the city and that exact details on that matter would come at a later date.
On August 24th, 1991, the Ukrainian parliament adopted the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine after 70 years of being a part of the Soviet Union.
