Anthony Ihnat
On Saturday September 12, 2023 … 58 year old Canadian aid worker, Anthony Ihnat was killed in Ukraine when the vehicle he was driving took a direct hit from a Russian anti-tank missile.
He and the other aid workers traveling with him, were on their way to check on civilians in the town of Ivanivske in the Bukhmut region.
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Anthony Ihnat, known to his friends as Tonka, was not some well to do or well known person like some influencer. Instead he was a handyman who made a good living working with his hands.
Then one day as he was watching the invasion of Ukraine unfold on television with buildings being blown up and the long lineups of people trying to get out of the country, and all he wanted to do was to help in anyway he could.
So he sold everything be owned and left the comfort and security of Richmond Hill, Ontario for Ukraine.
First he helped people carry their bags across the Ukrainian border to Poland. Then he spent three months converting schools into shelters. As a volunteer with Road to Relief he delivered humanitarian air, drove medical teams to villages and evacuated civilians. And he often did all this with the sound of gunfire within earshot or explosions from artillery fire that landed nearby.
Adam Oake, an aid worker from Toronto, who had befriended Ihnat and shared the love of the Maple Leafs in him, said he was a joy to be around … always happy … always laughing … always willing to work and do everything he could to help people in need.
Oake said he wanted people to remember him for his compassion, joyfulness and selflessness. Fellow aid workers considered his death as an ‘irrrplacable loss’.
Anthony Ihnat was one of those people who heeded the call to serve humanity and by doing so and losing his life … he upheld what is best in the human nature.
In other words, there is nothing more noble when and man or woman rise above the normal frey and act with a selfless heart to help those in need.