Canada’s military training mission to Ukraine has long since proved its importance and value. From the beginning, the program sought to bolster and enhance Ukraine’s defences. However, given the odds, it was unclear at the start of the mission in 2015 whether this was even possible. War artist and journalist Richard Johnson accompanied the Canadian military mission to Ukraine in 2015. Recently, his drawings were exhibited at the University of Saskatchewan’s St Thomas More Art Gallery. His illustrations capture the uncertainty of that moment, but also much more …
Bio:
Bohdan Kordan is Professor Emeritus of International Relations in the Department of Political Studies, St Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan. He is the author of Strategic Friends: Canada-Ukraine Relations from Independence to the Euromaidan (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018) and, with Mitch Dowie, Canada and the Ukrainian Crisis (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020).
Richard Johnson is an illustrator and journalist who has worked for the National Post, the Washington Post, and Detroit Free Press. As a war artist, he has accompanied Canadian and US military personnel on a variety of missions, including the Canadian training mission to Ukraine (2015). His work is held by the National Museum of the Marine Corps (Triangle, Virginia), the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (Washington, DC), and the Canadian War Museum (Ottawa).
The exhibition On Guard for Thee was organized by the Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage (PCUH) in association with the St Thomas More Art Gallery, University of Saskatchewan. It was on display from November 1 to December 16, 2022. Proceeds from the sale of artwork were allocated in support of the humanitarian relief efforts of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation.