Anna Dombrovska: Ukrainian Media in Canada, Diaspora, War, and Identity

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/12/27

Anna Dombrovska is a Ukrainian-born media volunteer and humanitarian professional active in Canada’s Ukrainian diaspora. Based in Ottawa and Toronto, she has produced and co-hosted Ukrainian-language programs for CHIN Radio and Rogers TV, helping sustain a shared information space for Canadians of Ukrainian heritage. Beyond broadcasting, Dombrovska has coordinated projects supporting Ukraine through organizations such as CNEWA Canada, linking media work with concrete aid and advocacy. Trained in linguistics and marketing, she brings a nuanced understanding of language, culture, and community organizing to her volunteer journalism, focusing on diasporic identity, wartime solidarity, and the preservation of Ukrainian culture abroad.

In this conversation, Scott Douglas Jacobsen speaks with Anna Dombrovska about her path from volunteer to key voice in Ukrainian media in Canada. Dombrovska describes building community radio and television programming in Ottawa and Toronto, maintaining a shared Ukrainian information space across generations and migration waves. She explains how Ukrainian-Canadian identity functions as a “third culture,” shaped by English and Canadian life yet rooted in Ukrainian language, music, and memory. The interview explores wartime coverage, Western media fatigue, diaspora responsibilities, and Dombrovska’s dream of interviewing President Volodymyr Zelensky about how the full-scale invasion has transformed his character and leadership.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How did you get involved in media? What is your story there? How did you become connected to the Ukrainian press in Canada, particularly around language and heritage?

Anna Dombrovska: Thank you for the opportunity to talk about it. There is not much known about Ukrainian media, or about different community media in Canada. Discussing the existence of Ukrainian media and the various outlets is an excellent opportunity to bring this hidden story to light. I do not have formal training in journalism, but over 10 years of experience pays off. A lot of  Ukrainian projects are run by volunteers. 

That is the story of the Ukrainian community. Where there is a will, there is a way. I started volunteering and learning at Chin Radio Ottawa. I began helping with the radio program with the leading producer, Irena Bell. She was invited to Chin Radio over 20 years ago because she was a community volunteer. She was not a professional journalist, but she knew what was happening in the community. She knew what was essential to preserve, apart from language and heritage. It is necessary to have a cultural base or an event background. It is vital to maintain a shared information space so the community can be united by it. Back then, the radio was one of the major media. Now everything is online and relies primarily on social media. At that time, the radio was mainstream. Recently, radio has receded. It is not as popular, but we are giving it a different spin now, and I can talk about that more later.

Jacobsen: Do you connect with any international Ukrainian-language communities for Ridne Radio, or is this a siloed operation in Canada for Ukrainian listeners, maybe focused on specific regions?

Dombrovska: Even within Canada, there are different media outlets. There are other radio stations that I am still discovering. Some of them were formed and are still operating on FM, and they were established when radio was mainstream. Some were formed more recently with the arrival of newcomers, and I am trying to connect with all of those media because we share the same goal and do the same work. We are creating an informational field that unites the community. It is beneficial to stay in touch, understand how we work, learn from each other, and support each other. In Ottawa, this was the only FM station we worked on. Now, Ridne Radio is entirely independent, works online, and uses various online tools, including video, to reach our audience.

There are also stations in Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton,  Toronto and other Canadian cities. There are small, local TV stations, but they have their own audiences. To answer your question about international work, there is an interesting idea. We have an organization that unites Ukrainians worldwide, the Ukrainian World Congress. Recently, the Ukrainian World Congress proposed that it would be beneficial to unite all Ukrainians worldwide through a coordination committee, so that if anyone has questions about how to organize a media outlet, they would know where to turn. We could all share our experiences and help anyone who wants to do this work. This is an idea I like, and I am excited about it.

Jacobsen: How have you developed this sense of Ukrainian identity within the diaspora as you have taken on these roles? One thing that comes up for people from other cultural contexts is the idea of a third culture. You are living in Canada, and as you develop a culture that is, in some sense, neither Ukrainian nor Canadian, it is still very rooted. How does the sensibility around Ukrainian diasporas and the mixture of cultures work?

Dombrovska: For me, it is a second home. I would feel different in another country. Canada is very unique, especially cities like Toronto and Ottawa. You have a Ukrainian community that accepts you as family. For me, it feels like I have my little Ukraine here in Canada. Canadian Ukrainians have their own history; even the language develops a little differently, as do their lives and realities. This is something unique that deserves its own coverage in the media. It is a remarkable phenomenon. Ukrainians in other countries have their own peculiarities. Communities in each country are different, but we all have a single base—Ukrainian culture. It is exciting to discover how Ukrainian identity develops in various ways. It feels very natural to be a Ukrainian in Canada.

Jacobsen: Do you like to do radio or television presenting?

Dombrovska: I do both. Apart from CHIN Radio, I was invited to volunteer for Rogers TV in 2010. We have Ukrainian radio and TV programs in Ottawa. The same applies to Toronto. I am grateful that Canadian policy supports ethnic media outlets. Multiculturalism helps to recognize that people with different cultures fit well within the Canadian mosaic.

Jacobsen: What topics do you cover when exclusively Ukrainian-language programming comes up?

Dombrovska: The topics usually depend on the type of programs we create. It is essential to maintain a connection between Ukraine and Canada, so political topics are central—everything related to how Canada helps Ukraine during the war. This is very important, and everybody wants to know about it. It is also a way to influence Canadian authorities so that they listen more to Ukrainian Canadians and understand how they want to support Ukraine and what they expect from the government. Our radio is available worldwide, so Ukrainians listen to what is happening in Canada as well. It is interesting for our close friends, families, and others to know how Ukrainians live in Canada. Is there anything special? How do we organize their events? What is our day-to-day life like? It is different from Ukraine, and that makes it interesting. Ukrainian music—both from Ukraine and from Ukrainian Canadians—is culturally valuable. It helps Ukrainians to experience their national culture. For those in Ukraine, it offers a chance to discover what kind of music Ukrainian Canadians created decades ago. And for those in Canada, it reminds them that Ukrainian music exists, continues to develop, and is modern and new. In terms of Ukrainian-Canadian culture, over time, it will be a mix that evolves, because if it evolves separately from Ukraine, the language will already evolve differently. As a linguist, I can tell the differences between modern Ukrainian and Ukrainian Canadian languages. Words and even syntax have their peculiarities. The same happens with culture. Over time, it develops under a palpable influence of the English or French language and Canadian culture.

Jacobsen: Do you take on a particular style of journalism based on anyone, or are you developing your own style as youbuild your skills?

Dombrovska: It is too early to talk about the style. I am not a full-time journalist; this is volunteer work. I would love to learn more and reach a point where I have my own style. I primarily listen to Ukrainian news because Ridne Radio’s content is in the Ukrainian language. I need to understand how to present in Ukrainian, so Ukrainian news comes as the first source of inspiration.  I listen to CBC news every day. This is a great example of Canadian broadcasting. 

Jacobsen: We met at the Rebuild Ukraine conference. What was your big takeaway from that meeting?

Dombrovska: The Rebuild Ukraine conference, first of all, is a paradox—how can you rebuild a country that is still being destroyed? That is the most striking part. People have a strong, realistic belief that peaceful times will come for Ukraine soon; otherwise, such a conference would not exist. That is one of the key messages of the conference. The event was well organized and supported. If there were no desire among people in Canada and Europe to invest in Ukraine, there would be no conference. There are real businesses and real investors involved, and that is very important. I think if Ukrainian media in Canada, like Ridne Radio, reports on this conference to its audience in Ukraine, to people on the front lines, my friends and family, they would be very moved. It would mean a great deal to them to know that there exists an absolutely realistic vision of a peaceful Ukraine here in Canada and in the European Union.

Jacobsen: Who has been your favourite interviewee?

Dombrovska: It is a difficult question. I have to think back a couple of years. I would talk about an event rather than an interviewee. The first event I reported on for the Ukrainian program on Rogers TV Ottawa was Ukraine at the Crossroads conference in Ottawa in 2012, just before the first war broke out. It was the first time I was reporting for TV, and the first time such a large conference happened in Ottawa. Many top-level guests and politicians from Canada and Ukraine were invited. That was the beginning of my volunteer journalism career.

Jacobsen: Who would be your dream interviewee?

Dombrovska: President Zelensky.

Jacobsen: What would you ask him?

Dombrovska: There are many tough questions I would like to ask. Mostly, I would like to explore how he changed as a person since the full-scale invasion in 2022. His views, position, mentality, and sense of responsibility changed. Some people say it is good acting, but I’d like to dig deep into personal transformation. That would be the most interesting part to explore.

Jacobsen: How do Ukrainian Canadians see the war?

Dombrovska: Probably the same way many of our supporters and people in the West see it: everyone wants the war to end, justice to prevail, Ukraine to be peaceful and able to develop, and Russia to be punished for what it has done so that it does not repeat itself.

Jacobsen: Does an imperially oriented society like the Russian Federation respond to punishment? Is that realistic?

Dombrovska: This is not a question of being realistic. It is a question of how we preserve the world with the values we have and prevent the absurd alternative views imposed by Russia from penetrating the world that Western nations created, of which Ukraine is a part. Some things are not realistic. The fact that Ukraine still stands and remains an independent country was considered unrealistic by some people after the full-scale invasion began. It is not about being realistic. We have to find a way to preserve our values and stand strong in our beliefs.

Jacobsen: In terms of Western media—what is called “the West”—what does the press get right, get wrong, and miss entirely?

Dombrovska: From what I have noticed, media fatigue has been present for a long time. That is one thing. In Western media, the word “war” is sometimes replaced with “conflict” or similar terms, which dilutes it. We have to remind people that it is war. People are dying every day. It is not a normal state of things, even though it has appeared normal for the last four years. Some journalists also try to justify Russian actions—suggesting that Russia is investigating something, or that there is suffering on the Russian side—although Russia is the aggressor, and we should not forget that. We cannot ignore that when talking about the war. Some try to create stories about poor Russian soldiers without acknowledging that Russia is the aggressor, not Ukraine. The aggressor has to pay, not the victim. This kind of balance and this kind of reminder must happen repeatedly so that the Western media does not start seeing Russia differently.

Jacobsen: What do you think are the red lines for Ukrainians now? In terms of cultural preservation, where do you see gaps in Canada, Ukraine, and the United States?

Dombrovska: It depends very much on what the aggressor is doing. You have to preserve your people and your territorial integrity. When it is already compromised, you have to defend as much as you can. The red lines are created by Russia. Once Russia stops crossing them, then Ukraine does not have to cross any lines at all. Aggression must be stopped. That is my view on red lines.

Regarding gaps between the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada and Ukraine, there needs to be more connection with Ukraine. First of all, we have excellent relations and strong bridges in artistic, political, and other aspects of life with Ukraine, especially after the war. Those connections have intensified. More Ukrainians came to Canada. There is a new wave of immigration: 300,000 people. That is a significant influence. The gaps may be between different waves of immigration in Canada, because there are many. We recently celebrated 130 years of Ukrainian immigration. The people who came long ago and their descendants developed differently. It is a different mentality. But we need to make sure we are not losing the connection between different waves of immigration. How can that be achieved? Through language, through culture, through political engagement, and through support for Ukraine. Everything comes back to Ukraine. Cuisine, festivals, culture, and schools all play a role.

Events are the easiest way to connect people. There is also business and many different interests. If you create a platform for that—a media platform, a cooperation platform, an events platform, a forum for people to interact—that is very important. I am very proud of Ukrainian organizations such as the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and the Ukrainian World Congress, which actually do this work. They try to keep Ukrainians together, regardless of their differences, in other countries. Now it is more important than ever, because many millions of Ukrainians are outside Ukraine. It is essential to keep them connected to their homeland.

When we were talking about Ukrainian media worldwide, this is one of the most important tasks right now. Because Ukrainian refugees are everywhere, in many countries. With the shrinking Ukrainian population in Ukraine, it becomes even more critical to connect all international Ukrainian media outlets from different countries, not only between Canada and Ukraine, but also in Europe and Asia. Wherever people travel, they find not only a Ukrainian embassy or consulate but also a Ukrainian cultural center or community. It is essential to have media outlets everywhere and connect them to create a platform for keeping Ukrainians together. This will also help us influence and tell the truth about the war everywhere where Ukrainians are, and seek help.

Jacobsen: Any favourite aphorisms or quotes of wisdom that you have heard in the Ukrainian context to describe how it feels to be Ukrainian during the war?

Dombrovska: “Resilience” is the word that comes up most often. How does it feel to be here while the war is happening? Well, when Ukrainians in Ukraine hear Ukrainians from Canada complaining about problems, they say, “Stop complaining. Come to Ukraine and live for a couple of days under attack and bombardment, and all your troubles will go away.” That is absolutely true. I have been to Ukraine since 2022. I visited my relatives, and I worked there for charity. 

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Anna. 

Photo by Misha Lytvynyuk Photography

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