Former Saskatchewan MLA watching Ukraine situation closely

Ken Krawetz spent most of Wednesday evening watching the news, trying to figure out what was happening on the ground in Ukraine.

“It’s just a terrible situation for Ukrainians who believed that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and his ministers were actually being honest and said they had no intention of attacking Ukraine. Obviously that was a lie; their plan has always been to rebuild the USSR from the past,” Krawetz said Thursday.

Krawetz retired as a Saskatchewan Party MLA in 2016. For much of his time in government, he was on “the Ukraine file,” travelling there for various agreements in 2008, 2010 and 2013.

“It has been a while but, of course, (I’ve been) keeping in touch with many people that have become friends. It’s a time that people are extremely worried,” said Krawetz.

Ukraine had been worried about Russia for a long time, explained Krawetz, and he thinks this is just the first step in Putin’s plan.

“(Putin’s) a dictator and he’s a tyrant,” said Krawetz.

Ukraine is a big part of people’s heritage in Saskatchewan. Krawetz cited numbers claiming that more than 100,000 people in the province have Ukrainian heritage.

“Ukrainian people today are probably shocked that a tyrant like Putin is continuing to move forward with his plan and NATO and the world sits back and says we’re going to put on sanctions while, in fact, North America continues to import oil from Russia,” said Krawetz.

The former MLA said sanctions haven’t worked against Ukraine before and he doesn’t think they’re working now, and he thinks western governments need to move forward with more.

“We can’t be importing hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from Russia at the same time as we’re saying to Putin, ‘You’re doing something that’s not supported by the world,’ ” said Krawetz.

He said people living in Canada need to encourage NATO leaders and others to push forward against Putin and tell him to stop what he’s doing.

Krawetz also said that even with what has already happened there, there is going to be a tremendous displacement of Ukrainians from their home, and he believes Canada and Saskatchewan need to open their arms and be open to providing a home for them.