Themes by tag: Kyiv

Anna Pavlus is 38. She is a fashion designer by profession. The woman worked as a custom tailor (she had her own workshop). In 2016, Anna fell and suffered a spinal cord injury and has been forced to use a wheelchair ever since. The woman faced the problem of uncomfortable clothes for people with disabilities. She herself began designing clothes more suitable for the sitting position of the body, since there was no such thing on the market in Ukraine. And then she started making the clothes to order.

With the beginning of the full-scale war, her production stopped for a month. In order to restore and increase the capacity, the woman received a state grant. And since March 2023, a sewing workshop has been operating in Kyiv region, where Anna sews adaptive clothes. Three more people work there, including a person in a wheelchair.

Anna plans to create a social enterprise to train and employ other people in wheelchairs.

• women
• Kyiv

Artur Proidakov is a native of the temporarily occupied Kadiivka, Luhansk region. Since childhood, the man has been fond of the Ukrainian language, literature, culture, music, and everything related to Ukraine. In 2007, Artur chose the profession of a teacher and decided to major in Ukrainian philology. He studied and worked until russia attacked the East of the country in 2014. The man moved to the capital and began to teach refugees, for this he created his own online Ukrainian language course. With the beginning of the full-scale war, Artur also developed an online course “Talk” for those who want to switch from russian to Ukrainian.

For reference: In 2021, Artur Proidakov became the winner of the Global Teacher Prize Ukraine. And this year, Proidakov made the rating of the top 50 teachers in the world.

• Kyiv

The government project “Recovery Army” is already working in Ukraine. It involves unemployed Ukrainians in community service. As of September 18, more than 50,000 people have joined the initiative. People get paid for the work they do.

Kharkiv oblast currently ranks the first in terms of attracting the unemployed to the “Recovery Army” (more than 10,000 people, about 1,000 of whom are IDPs). Kyiv oblast holds the fourth place, after Poltava and Donetsk regions. In particular, the participants from Kyiv region are put to work weaving camouflage nets, improving city spaces, sewing clothes or making dry rations for defenders, setting up shelters, etc.

Journalists are welcome to take a look at how the project is being implemented in Kharkiv or Kyiv regions. They can also get a comment from the authorities on this topic.

• reconstruction
• Kharkiv
• Kyiv

What is more important: a prize in the competition or a participant’s personal achievement? And should we measure the effectiveness of the Games by the number of medals? These and other issues will be discussed on September 29 during a meeting in Kyiv.

Participants:

– Anastasiia Halaiko, Head of the Department of Veteran Sports at the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine;

– Ilona Voloshyna, national coordinator of the Invictus Games in Ukraine;

– Alina Frolova, founder of the Center for Strategic Communications “StratCom Ukraine”;

– Taras Kovalyk, head of the Come Back Alive Veterans’ Department 

– Olena Yanovska, head coach of the Invictus Games team;

– Ihor Krytsak, sports manager of the Invictus Games team;

– Maksym Zubov, member of the Invictus Games 2023 team;

– Volodymyr Tovkys, member of the 2023 Invictus Games team;

– Oleksandr Zozuliak, member of the Invictus Games 2018 national team;

• casualties
• military
• Kyiv

Svitlana Humeniuk is now the director of the Kolonshchyna Lyceum, a village in the Bucha district that went through the occupation. At the time of the full-scale Russian invasion, she worked as a Design and Technology teacher and a leisure-time activities teacher. 

At the end of February 2022, the occupiers encircled the village of Kolonshchyna. People were prohibited from leaving. Many civilians who tried to escape the occupation spent the night in the school.

Svitlana and three other teachers risked their own lives to help their fellow villagers: they joined the distribution of humanitarian aid and even delivery. All this was despite the shelling and enemy missiles. To somehow protect themselves from the occupiers, they wore white ribbons on their sleeves. In addition, some families with children, including students of the lyceum she now heads, took refuge in Svitlana’s house.

Ukraine’s Armed Forces liberated Kolonshchyna village in late March 2022.

The journalists are welcome to talk to Svitlana and other Lyceum teachers. Currently, the educational institution has  215 students.

As a reminder, Ukraine celebrates Teacher’s Day on October 1.

• casualties
• children
• occupation
• Kyiv

 On September 27, in Kyiv, the “Tribunal for putin” initiative will present two complaints to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court: one of them concerns places in Kharkiv region where Ukrainians were held captive and tortured, and the other one – extrajudicial executions of Ukrainians by the russian military. Human rights defenders argue that russia’s actions are crimes against humanity.

Participants:

– Hanna Ovdiienko, expert at the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, co-author of the complaint;

– Maksym Reviakin, expert at the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, co-author of the complaint;

– Vladyslav Dolzhko, lawyer at the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, co-author of the complaint;

– Yulia Polekhina, Coordinator of the Admissions Office of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union in Dnipro and Human rights group “SICH”;

– Nataliia Yashchuk, Project Management Coordinator at the Centre for Civil Liberties;

• casualties
• dead
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

Mariia Yudina is an artist and designer. The girl comes from Berdiansk city, Zaporizhia region (currently under Russian control). 

Mariia faced the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion in Kyiv, where she came to bring an art project to life. Later, volunteers approached the artist with an offer to paint the remains of wrecked and damaged weapons. Since then, a one-off project developed into a regular basis art object-making. Mariia donates the painted shell casings, tubes, flasks, and remnants of rockets to charity auctions and fundraisers.

The artist mostly paints flowers on used weapons. Her slogan is: “They launch missiles, and I draw flowers on it.” Now the artist is also working on painting tubes with views of different cities: Zaporizhia, and Melitopol. Maria has also depicted landscapes of her native Berdiansk. She also plans to portray the Crimea landscape. 

• culture
• volunteers
• women
• Kyiv

Olena Chekryzhova is an experienced English teacher who lived in Donetsk Oblast until 2014. There, Olena managed to create one of the first online platforms for learning a foreign language. However after Russia attacked Eastern Ukraine, she left her hometown and kept on doing her business in Kyiv. In 2022, when the full-scale hostile invasion began, Olena got started with volunteering and later taught soldiers English at a military base to make it easier for them to work with the weapons that our partners were sending to Ukraine. Eventually, she created her project to teach English to the Armed Forces.

For information: Olena is in Kyiv, ready to talk to journalists, both online and offline.

• military
• volunteers
• women
• Kyiv

Oleh Symoroz enlisted in the Defense Forces at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. The man defended the Kyiv region as part of the Territorial Defence Forces, and later his unit went to Eastern Ukraine. In October 2022, while performing a combat mission, Oleh’s vehicle hit an enemy mine. The soldier lost both legs and suffered a severe jaw fracture. Oleh has become a bilateral above-the-knee amputee, surviving one of the most difficult surgical procedures for further leg prosthetics. However, the man has taken a responsible approach to his rehabilitation, managed to stand on his prostheses, and is already planning his return to the front line. Oleh is considering a combat position only, perhaps he will train to become a UAV pilot.

For information: Oleh is currently in Kyiv and available to talk to journalists in person.

• casualties
• military
• Kyiv

DonorUA and the Civil Preparedness Center in Kyiv will host blood donations collected for the military and civilians. Residents of the city will be able to donate blood and listen to a lecture on the importance of regular donations. The blood collection will be conducted by the Kyiv Regional Blood Service Center.

Speakers:

• Aliona Myha, transfusionist, head of the blood center at the Amosov National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery;
• Iryna Slavinska, co-founder of DonorUA, President of the All-Ukrainian Association of Donors of Ukraine, and co-author of the Law of Ukraine “On Safety and Quality of Donated Blood and Blood Components”.

Media accreditation is required in advance. 

For reference: DonorUA is the only professional system of blood donor recruitment and navigation. It supports the 22 blood centers’ operation and cooperates with the Ministry of Health, the UCC, the WHO, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Global Blood Fund. Today, the DonorUA database includes over 135,000 donors. More than 7,000 patients have received targeted assistance through the platform, and it takes no more than 20 minutes to find a donor for a particular patient.

The Civilian Preparedness Center is a project of the Serhiy Prytula Charitable Foundation, aiming to teach civilians basic military training and provide them with the survival skills that may be needed during war. There are more than 60 centers in 17 regions of Ukraine. Over 1450 trainings have been held within the Civil Preparedness Center framework, attended by more than 25 thousand civilian Ukrainians

• doctors
• Kyiv