Themes by tag: culture

On September 11, journalists are invited to the offline premiere of the fourth film in the “Ready to Resist” series, “Shields of Kyiv”. The film is dedicated to the 112th and 241st brigades of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which have been defending the capital since the first days of the invasion.

“Shields of Kyiv” is a documentary created by a team of TDF Media military personnel, telling the story of key military positions near Kyiv held by the Territorial Defense Forces at the start of the full-scale invasion.

It is the story of the courage and valor of the soldiers of the 112th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade who, along with other combat units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, defended the capital during the active attempts of the russian troops to advance. This brigade gave birth to and formed the “backbone” of another combat unit – the 241st Independent Brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces. During the early days of the great war, these brigades became, in a sense, the shields of Kyiv.

The film was made under the guidance of serviceman and director Akhtem Seitablayev. Historian and officer of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Alforov also contributed to the film. The directors of the film are Dmytro Havrylenko and Oles Katsion.

At the premiere there will be an opportunity to meet and talk with the filmmakers.

• culture
• Kyiv

On September 7, the Kyiv Oblast Military Administration invites the public to visit the sites featured in its pilot project, Kyiv Region: Places of Memory. Participants will have the opportunity to explore historical landmarks tied to Ukraine’s heroic resistance and the devastation caused by russian occupation, accompanied by expert guides.

The project employs advanced technology to recreate key scenes from Kyiv’s defense against russian forces. Virtual reality installations at each location immerse visitors in the stark realities of brutal battles, widespread destruction, and the pain endured by the nation during the invasion.

The initiative aims to ensure the world remembers both the victims of the russian invasion and the resilience of Ukrainians. Organizers stress that the war crimes committed on Ukrainian soil must be acknowledged and never forgotten.

Accreditation is required to attend the event.

For reference: In July, the Kyiv Oblast Military Administration began training guides to work at the various sites connected to the russian-Ukrainian war as part of the Kyiv Region: Places of Memory project.

• culture
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

On Saturday, September 7, Kyiv will host the fourth day of the Protasiv Yar festival in memory of Roman Ratushnyi. This is the final of four festival days that have been taking place throughout the summer on the Protas meadow in Kyiv. 

Among other things, the festival program includes performances by the bands MOVA and Vivienne Mort. 

A discussion “Freedom of Speech” will also take place.

Participants: Oksana Romaniuk, director of the Institute of Mass Information (IMI); Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, a member of the Ukrainian parliament from the Holos party and head of the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech; Danilo Mokryk, a journalist for Kyiv Independent; and Vlasta Lazur, a journalist for Radio Liberty. 

The discussion will be moderated by Sofia Cheliak, journalist and program director of the NGO Publishers’ Forum.

In addition, there will be a discussion “Ariadne’s Thread in Ukrainian Culture: From Our 1920s to the Present” and a lecture “Anger, Sarcasm, and Calm: Three States of Vasyl Stus’s Poetry”.

Journalists are welcome to find out more about the festival program. 

For reference: The Protasiv Yar Festival in memory of Roman Ratushnyi was founded last year by the NGO Protect Protasiv Yar and the Protasiv Yar community with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation. This year’s festival was co-organized by the NGO Publishers’ Forum.

• culture
• Kyiv

On September 7, journalists are invited to the photo exhibition “Brave Faces”, which is part of the charity project for reconstructive facial surgery for military personnel wounded in combat, “Doctors for Heroes”. The event will be held in Kyiv.

The program includes:

– Presentation

– Social and cultural performance

For 2 weeks 24 portraits of 8 heroes will be exhibited in triptych.

The heroes of the portraits are servicemen and veterans, patients of the project “Doctors for Heroes”, who are undergoing treatment and rehabilitation after facial injuries.

The author of the portraits is Yuliia Ovsiannikova, a photographer with the Ukrainian National News Agency.

For reference: The event is organized within the framework of the project “DOCTORS FOR HEROES”, implemented by the charitable foundation Eastern Star with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation, in cooperation with Ukrinform, the state enterprise Crimean House, the charitable foundation Brave Faces and IMATECH MEDICAL.

• culture
• Kyiv

On September 6, as part of the traditional “Film Screenings at Protas”, a documentary about the soldiers of the 3rd Brigade will be screened in Kyiv. 

Before the screening there will be a meeting with members of the film crew: director Lyubomyr Levytsky and executive producer Dmytro Nikiforov.

The documentary We Were Recruits shows war stories through the eyes of its protagonists. It is not a simple catalog of events, but a deep insight into the nature of war, its impact on individuals, nations and society.

The documentary is presented in an artistic form that allows viewers to immerse themselves in the events, feel the emotions, and experience the pain and hope of the characters.

Admission to the screening is free. During the screening, attendees will have the opportunity to contribute to a fundraising effort in support of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Journalists must be accredited for the event. 

Background: “Film screenings at Protas” continue the tradition initiated by Roman Ratushnyi. He was an activist, a leader who united and rallied the local community in the fight for the Green Zone of Kyiv’s historic Protasiv Yar area. He fought as a scout in the 93rd Mechanized Brigade “Kholodnyi Yar” and was killed in action on June 8, 2022.

• culture
• Kyiv

On September 3, a briefing for the organizers and participants of the Second KyivBookFest will take place at the Media Center Ukraine.

Running from September 5 to 8, the KyivBookFest will return for its second edition, featuring a large-scale book fair and a branch forum. Over 100 publishers are set to participate, with the festival offering more than 150 events throughout its duration.

The festival also includes a charitable initiative, aiming to raise UAH 1.5 million for the Army Reading Program of the Ukrainian Reformation Community. These funds will be used to purchase approximately 7,000 books for libraries in military educational institutions.

Participants:

– Vladyslav Kyrychenko, Owner of Nash Format Publishing House, Organizer of KyivBookFest;

– Anna Bondarchuk, Executive Director of the NGO Reformation;

– Anatolii Symovoniuk, Serviceman, Major, Representative of the NGO Reformation;

– Serhii Kruhlov, Deputy Head of the Kyiv Institute of the National Guard of Ukraine for Personnel Management, Col.

During the briefing, participants will highlight what makes this year’s festival special, provide an overview of the program, and introduce the event’s notable guests.

• culture
• Kyiv

This August 30, the Center for Civil Liberties, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights organization, will host an evocative evening of poetry and solidarity in Kyiv to honor the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. The event, titled “Hold on! I’m Holding On!”, aims to bring together human rights activists, artists, and families of those imprisoned by russian forces, creating a poignant space for reflection and resistance.

In this intimate gathering, participants will read aloud poems written from and about captivity, sharing the pain and resilience of those who have been forcibly disappeared. The event seeks to amplify these voices, highlighting the importance of speaking out against such injustices.

The evening’s participants include:

– Akhtem Seitablaev, soldier, actor, and director;

– Tetiana Vlasova, poet;

– Iya Kiva, poet;

– Olena Tsyhipa, wife of political prisoner Serhii Tsyhipa;

– Oleksandra Romantsova, Executive Director of the Center for Civil Liberties.

Attendance is by accreditation only.

For reference: “Hold on! I’m Holding On!” is a poetry initiative launched by the Center for Civil Liberties. The project showcases the writings of renowned Ukrainian poets alongside the poignant verses of individuals currently enduring captivity in russia. Its goal is to shed light on the suffering and unyielding spirit of Ukrainians who have been detained during the conflict.

According to the Center for Civil Liberties, at least 7,000 civilians are currently held in prisons across russia and its temporarily occupied territories. The exact number of prisoners of war remains unknown. Both civilians and soldiers suffer egregious violations of international law, enduring torture and being kept in a chilling information void.

• culture
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

On August 29, Kyiv will open a photo exhibition “Days of Remembrance of the Heroes of the Battle of Ilovaisk (2014)” to commemorate the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine. This year marks 10 years since one of the most tragic events in our fight against russia. The photo exhibition is a reminder of those events and a tribute to all those who were the first to defend our country in 2014.

Photos that have already become historic and were taken by photographers who worked in the area of ​​the fiercest fighting near Ilovaisk, Donetsk region, in August 2014, in the deployment area of “Donbas” Special Purpose Battalion of the National Guard of Ukraine will be presented in the capitol’s downtown. A kind of photo anthology of those events was created by Maxim Dondyuk, Oleksandr Glyadyelov, Markiian Lyseiko and Maksym Levin, who managed to get out of the Ilovaisk encirclement alive.

Maksym Levin died in occupied Kyiv region during the full-scale invasion in the spring of 2022, when he was documenting the crimes of the russians.

These more than fifty photos are just part of a large collection, which represents facts about the battle of Ilovaisk from August 10 to the “green corridor of death” on August 29, 2014.

 At the opening of the exhibition, the Ilovaisk events will be told by:

• Nataliia Kharchenko, mother of Yevhen “Red” Kharchenko, a participant in the Revolution of Dignity and the russo-Ukrainian war, who died in the battles for Ilovaisk;
• photographers Oleksandr Glyadyelov and Markiian Lyseiko;
• Roman Zinenko, soldier, participant in the battles for Ilovaisk;

A representative of the organizers of the photo exhibition will also speak at the event, mainly Olha Salo, Deputy Director General for Development, Cultural and Educational Work of the National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity.

For reference: Organizers of the event are “’Sarmat’ Military-Patriotic Association of Combatant” NGO, “Invincible Mothers of Ukraine” NGO, Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine and the National Memorial Complex of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred – Museum of the Revolution of Dignity.

• culture
• military
• Kyiv

Ania Kudzia is a Polish citizen who restores monuments for a living. For the past ten years, the woman and her team have been helping to restore Ukraine’s architectural heritage. The restorers have set up a workshop in Lviv where they work on sculptures.

With the beginning of the full-scale war, Ania together with a group of Polish-Ukrainian restorers founded the Ukraina Pomagamy initiative. They buy cars and medicines for the front and assemble first aid kits for soldiers in their workshop. Ania Kudzia delivers all of it to the front line by herself or together with a team of women. Since the initiative was created, volunteers have managed to send seven cars to the front, including an ambulance.

In addition, the restorers underwent a tactical medicine course in Poland, and now they plan to complete the next level of the course, because in the future they are considering the possibility of working as medics at the front.

Ania Kudzia and her team are in Lviv. Restorers are ready to communicate with journalists, both online and in person, by prior arrangement.

• culture
• volunteers
• Lviv

“Symphony of Ukrainian Fairy Tales,” an inclusive and interactive theatrical event for children with disabilities performed by the Kyiv Classic Orchestra under the direction of UNESCO Artist for Peace Herman Makarenko will be held in Kyiv on August 28.

In “Symphony of Ukrainian Fairy Tales” musical and theatrical art are combined using an interactive approach. The script is based on Ukrainian folklore. The performance will feature the works of Semen Hulak-Artemovsky, Mykola Lysenko, Levko Kolodub and Volodymyr Ptushkin, as well as Ukrainian folk melodies.

The program of the event includes: press briefing; performance; communication with participants and the audience.

For reference: The project is supported by the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.

• children
• culture
• Kyiv