Anti-war protests were also held in cities across Canada, a chorus of voices growing in size over the weekend.
Thousands rallied in Toronto, joined be Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.
“It is horrific and people are dying in Ukraine right now for absolutely no reason, and we have to remember that,” she said during the rally.
Freeland told the crowd to be proud of the courageous stand Ukrainians were taking.
“The Ukrainians are doing one hell of a job,” she said.
In Edmonton, Vitalii Haponiuk joined thousands to march on Sunday. Like many in the protest, she is from Ukraine, having come to Canada as a student three years ago.
“I’m worried about my parents,” Haponiuk told The Canadian Press. “They live in a small town, but even there they heard Russian planes, Russian bombs. It’s very scary.”
In Montreal’s protest, 17-year-old Anya Dashe told The Canadian Press that her father is in Ukraine and called them today to say goodbye.
“He thinks he’s going to die today because there are multiple bombs going over my city,” she said.
There was a large crowd outside the B.C. legislature on Sunday to express their anger over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The crowd included local politicians as well as people like Oleksandr Filonovych, who is afraid for the safely of his family.
“Pretty much all of my family except my wife and my kid are in Ukraine, so my mom, my brother, my dad, all my cousins, everybody,” Filonovych said, adding that many of them are in the capital, Kyiv.
At the Russian embassy in Ottawa, families are fearing for loved ones now sleeping in bomb shelters.
Jane Rubina’s family is in Ukraine.
“At this point, everybody is alive and that’s all we are praying for at the moment,” she told CTV News.
With Ottawa still recovering from a three-week occupation of truckers and other demonstrators protesting against vaccine mandates and the government, Ottawa resident Jordyn Kiteley said she was surprised by the number of people who turned up to condemn Russia’s actions.
“I’m proud to be Canadian, especially after all the dumb convoy stuff we saw,” she told The Canadian Press. “This is just overpowering to watch and to see how people are feeling about it, and that I’m not alone with this.”