Stories of Ukrainian resistance and courage – Ukraїner presents “Deoccupation” multimedia project

After the deoccupation of Ukrainian settlements in April 2022, the Ukraїner team started to work in the newly deoccupied territories. Within the framework of the “Deoccupation” project that they started, the journalists talked to civilians who had been under occupation and to the military who had participated in the liberation of the territories. As part of the project, the team continues to go on expeditions to cities and towns of Ukraine freed from russians, telling of both the stories of resistance and the crimes committed by the occupiers.

So far, 24 episodes of the project have been released, all videos are available on YouTube and have English dubbing. A VR video and a book were also created based on the documentary material – “Deoccupation. Stories of Ukrainian resistance. 2022.”

At the country’s main discussion platform BrainHub in Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform, Vitalii Poberezhnyi, Producer of the docuseries “Deoccupation, said that the project focuses on those people who resisted.  

“These are the stories of those who under conditions of occupation and death threats were not afraid to resist the enemy in various forms – somewhere it was non-violent resistance, for example, distributing leaflets, and there was also armed resistance, when you make “cocktails” and go out to burn down tanks. We were looking for stories of such bravest people. One can see it in the stories about Chernihiv, Sumy, Hostomel. There is a story about Kukhari, Kyiv region, about Trostyanets. And these are stories of resistance, stories of the courage of Ukrainians and how they were not afraid to oppose the enemy under occupation,” he explained.

In turn, Oleksandra Romantsova, Executive Director at the Center for Civil Liberties, emphasized the importance of such projects and the necessity for documenting what happened in the newly deoccupied territories.

“The deoccupied territory is a crime scene that needs to be brought to order to continue living there, to rebuild one’s life and actually fight against russia’s desire to end it. That is why it is so important to document it quickly and close to the moment of deoccupation,” she explained.

However, Oleksandra Romantsova noted that despite the necessity and importance of documenting the events that took place in the deoccupied territories, a balance should be observed in order not to harm those citizens who can currently use the same fighting methods in the occupied territories.

“First, any practices that took place in the occupied territories, practices of resistance, continue to be used in others. And when we do something publicly, we need to keep a balance here, so that we don’t fail those who are now fighting with the same partisan methods in the currently occupied territories,” she emphasized.

Oleksandra Romantsova noted that the information recorded in the deoccupied territories should be presented, in particular to audiences outside Ukraine. Because, according to her, this is an important foundation for political decisions. Also, she added, such information helps to record potential crimes committed by the russians and transfer the data to international authorities to continue working to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“We cooperate ourselves and offered Ukraїner to cooperate as well. By collecting and systematizing such data, our initiative “Tribunal for putin” has as of now recorded more than 50,000 potential international crimes, due to, among other things, such excellent projects. And under that (project – Ed.), we are already preparing a submission to the International Criminal Court so that they will pay attention to a pattern of crimes, which can become a large systemic case, and that’s how we can prove that the responsibility goes to a high level, that there was a special order, for example, to shoot everyone indiscriminately,” stressed Oleksandra Romantsova.

BrainHub is the country’s main discussion platform created by Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform. It brings together experts from the state and civil society sectors. BrainHub hosts intellectual discussions around the issues of the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. It’s the birthplace of the best ideas that will become the foundation for the road map of Ukraine’s reconstruction in all sectors: economy, infrastructure, education, agriculture, security, digital, etc.

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