Themes by tag: 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

The village of Hostomel in Kyiv region was one of the settlements that suffered at the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion. It is here that the French company Neo-Eco turned construction waste from buildings destroyed by the occupiers into new building materials.

The company dismantled 4 apartment buildings in Hostomel (and one more building was dismantled by another company). A total of about 50,000 tons of construction waste were collected and then sorted and processed. So, for example, bricks were turned into bedding material, concrete – into various fractions, which can be used in the future for the production of new concrete. A formula for concrete with the repeated use of recycled materials was developed as well. With modern technologies, it was possible to avoid environmental pollution with construction debris.

The company followed similar ecological principles when restoring the port destroyed by the explosion in the capital of Lebanon, Beirut.

The local authorities plan to use recycled building materials in the construction of new houses.

Journalists have the opportunity to obtain photos and videos of dismantling and recycling works, as well as to film at the site where recycled construction waste is stored and to talk with company representatives.

• occupation
• reconstruction
• Kyiv

On September 21, a press conference entitled: “Interfaith cooperation between religious communities in Ukraine and the United States for the sake of peace in Ukraine” will be held in Kyiv. The participants include (in person):

• Dr. Mohammed Zaher Sahloul, MedGlobal President, professor at the University of Illinois Chicago and the University of Washington,
• Kareem M. Irfan, Vice President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA),
• Rev. Gregory Seal Livingston, Ordained Baptist Minister, Pastor, Preacher,
• Sheikh Rustam Gafuri, Deputy Mufti of Ukraine of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine, representative of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations,
• Evelina Kurilets, Director at Razom for Ukraine Charitable Foundation.

The topics of focus at the press conference include: countering the propaganda of the russian Orthodox Church and Patriarch Kirill in the U.S. and Muslim countries, as well as conveying the truth about the war in Ukraine to the highest political circles in the U.S.

• religion
• Kyiv

On September 28, training for future volunteer medics will take place in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to last for more than a week. In October, the training will be held in Kyiv.

The Hospitallers medical volunteer battalion organizes such training sessions regularly across the country.

Journalists are welcomed to cover the training process.

• doctors
• Dnipro
• Kyiv