Themes by tag: occupation

In 2015, Ksenia Kleinos opened a creative space in Berdiansk (the city is occupied now), Zaporizhia region — the anti-cafe “CHAS YE” (there is time). When russia’s full-scale invasion started, the woman was at home: at 4 AM she heard explosions. She decided to go to a village near Berdiansk, because she thought it was safer there. She lived in the village for 40 days and saw helicopters circling over the house. The woman decided to leave: she had to go through 16 russian checkpoints to get to Zaporizhia.

In April 2022, Ksenia moved to Lviv. She decided to open a coffee shop (in the summer she applied for a grant from the state). At the beginning of autumn, she launched the public project “We Are Berdiansk” to support other refugees from Berdiansk. Meanwhile, the answer came: Ksenia received the grant of UAH 240,000. Nowadays, Ksenia gathers people from Berdiansk in her cafe, where she holds, in particular, art master classes, and they also play board games there. The community even has its own reading club.

In addition, two landsmen of Ksenia work in her coffee shop, which the woman named in honor of an island in Berdiansk creek “Dzendzik.”

• casualties
• occupation
• women
• Lviv

Lerane Khaibulaieva is a Crimean Tatar who was born in Uzbekistan, where the soviet authorities deported her family from Crimea. Lerane returned to the peninsula as a child. And in 2016, after russia’s occupation of Crimea, she was forced to leave her home. She settled in Kyiv region. In 2022, she fled Irpin, which the russians were trying to assault at the time.

In Crimea, Lerane worked as a journalist covering economic topics. However, the woman always dreamed of creating a family cafe. She opened a small café serving chebureki in Kyiv region, and later a cafe in the suburbs of the capital. In Lviv, which became Lerane’s fourth home, she again returned to doing her favorite thing and founded Crimean Yard cafe.

Her own business helps the woman support her son, who is still in school, as well as her husband, a veteran who fought the anti-terrorist operation and defended Ukraine during the full-scale invasion. He is now back from the front line due to a disability. Lerane says that she dreams to move one more time – to Crimea, liberated from the russians.

• casualties
• food
• occupation
• women
• Lviv

Researchers at the Tarnovskyi Chernihiv Regional Historical Museum discover historical artifacts that remain in the basement of a school in the village of Yahidne in Chernihiv Oblast. A place where the occupiers kept over 300 local residents in inhumane conditions for almost a month in the spring of 2022.

Experts have been visiting a local school in Yahidne since September last year. During this time, they have examined and documented more than 600 findings. Among material evidence, there were pieces of clothes, shoes, personal belongings, knives, books, boxes of enemy military rations, hand sanitizer bottles, Russian newspapers, wooden pallets on which the prisoners had to sit and sleep, and even plastic water bottles that served as a toilet. The specialists are now done with describing the items of evidence in 5 rooms and are now searching the gym (the largest space in the basement). The work is scheduled to be completed in February.

All examined items will remain in place. The authorities plan to convert the school basement into a museum. 

Journalists are welcome to join the museum’s researchers and cover their work.

For reference: The village of Yahidne is located near Chernihiv. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russians set up their headquarters in a local school. They forced 299 adult local residents and 67 children into the school basement and held villagers captive for almost a month (almost an entire village). The basement area is 197 square meters. For lack of space, people had to sleep sitting up, and there was also a lack of oxygen. 10 people died.

In February, the famous American TIME magazine released a cover with the Yahidne village basement. 

• casualties
• dead
• occupation
• russian crimes
• Chernihiv

Originally from Donetsk, Tetiana Tipakova lived in Berdiansk, Zaporizhia region (currently Russian-occupied), for about 30 years. Before Russia’s all-out invasion, she worked in a travel agency.

Since the full-blown war’s early days, Tetiana assembled peaceful protests in support of Ukraine in Berdiansk. Eventually, she was abducted by the Russian military for leading the actions. They put a bag over her head and took her to a colony, where she was interrogated for two days and beaten. Tetiana was subjected to electric shocks through her fingers and Russian captors mocked her execution. She was also forced to record an apology video. The prisoner was released, but the next day she was captured again. This time, she was held for 4 days and again had to endure torture.

After that, Tatiana decided to flee the city. She traveled through more than 20 checkpoints to get to the city of Zaporizhia. There she later founded the Ridna Stezhka NGO to support her fellow countrymen who were also forced out of the occupied city. They help people with food and medicine insecurity and organize leisure activities. They also help the military from the Berdiansk community. “Our heart is forever yellow and blue” is a tagline linked with the organization. 

There is an opportunity for journalists to hold offline and online interviews with Tetiana. 

• occupation
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• women

On January 17, a press conference on the situation in Ukraine’s temporarily occupied areas in 2023 and the challenges ahead in 2024 will be held at the Media Center – Ukrinform.

The press conference discussion will involve experts examining the socio-political issues, humanitarian crises, and abuses of international humanitarian law in the temporarily occupied territories. The event will also feature a discussion on challenges to face in 2024, including the upcoming Russian presidential election.

In addition, a study by the OSINT agency Molfar “Kremlin Agents in Robes: How the Clergy of the UOC (MP) Lobby for Russia’s Interests” will be released. 

Participants: 

– Andriy Yusov, Representative of the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine;

– Anatolii Stelmakh, Deputy Minister for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine;

– Ihor Solovey, Head of the Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security;

– Pavlo Fiialkovskyi, an analyst at an OSINT Agency;

– Representative of the Special Operations Forces’ National Resistance Center of Ukraine. 

Event media registration is required. 

• occupation
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

70-year-old Olha is a teacher who takes care of 5 adopted children. Her husband is severely ill.

The village in the Kherson region where the family lived was occupied by Russia since the beginning of its full-scale invasion. The woman was living in fear of enemy military might separate her from her children, as her daughter and sons were adoptees. They managed to flee life under occupation only on the third attempt.

Now the family lives in a rented apartment. However, Olha’s brother helped them buy a plot of land in the Kyiv region. Dobrobat volunteers assisted in constructing new housing for the family. It will be a one-story eco-house made of wood. They will start building it with the onset of warm weather.

For reference: “Dobrobat” is a volunteer building division helping those affected to restore housing and social infrastructure in the de-occupied territories.

• casualties
• children
• occupation
• reconstruction
• volunteers
• Kyiv

Olena Zinova is an entrepreneur from Kherson. For more than 20 years, the woman has run her own shop and sold embroidered Ukrainian shirts, towels, jewelry and souvenirs with Petrykivka painting. When the enemy occupied Olena’s hometown in 2022, she had to carefully hide all things with Ukrainian symbols and close the store, because the russians were looking for and destroying everything that was even remotely connected to Ukraine. Olena had lived under the occupation for three months, when she finally decided to leave and take a collection of embroidered shirts and the Ukrainian flag with her. Together with her family, the woman managed to pass through 33 russian roadblocks, even though each one could be the last, Olena says.

The entrepreneur’s family settled in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, where she immediately began to rebuild her business. Olena made another shop from scratch, had renovations done there and bought equipment to replace what she had had to leave in Kherson. Nowadays, clothes from Olena’s shop aren’t worn only in Kryvyi Rih, as she also receives orders from abroad. The woman dreams that soon she will be able to return to her hometown and once again please customers with Ukrainian embroidered shirts.

For reference: on November 11, 2022, the Defense Forces of Ukraine liberated Kherson from the occupiers. Since then russia has been constantly shelling the city and killing Kherson civilians. 

• culture
• occupation
• reconstruction
• women
• Dnipro

Volodymyr Sahaidak is the director of the Children’s Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation in Kherson Oblast. With the outbreak of a full-blown war and the occupation of the area, he and staff moved to the Center in their care for 52 orphans. According to Volodymyr, the occupiers tried to take the children from Ukraine to Russia under various pretexts, including allegedly being abducted to undergo “rehabilitation”. However, the staff of the institution hindered their plan’s progress. Volodymyr hid the orphans, leaving them in the care of different people: his relatives and the Center’s staff. Later, the children were secretly transferred to the territory controlled by Ukraine: a unique story was devised and even documents were forged to pass the enemy-controlled checkpoints. 

Now the Children’s Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation building has been empty, all the children have been successfully evacuated. Most of them are either with extended families or in foster care willing to provide support for them.

Volodymyr Sahaidak lives in the Kherson region and is ready to talk to the news media representatives, both offline and online.

• children
• occupation
• Kherson

The Kyiv Regional Center for Mental Health was captured by the occupiers at the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The russian military settled in the facility. They stole valuable equipment from there. The center itself was badly damaged.

After the de-occupation, the restoration works began in the medical facility: in particular, the medical and psychological rehabilitation department was recently opened. It was created on the basis of one of the Center’s branches, which suffered the most during the full-scale invasion. Here the specialists will help military personnel, their relatives and civilians who suffered from the russian federation’s aggression. In total, more than 20 types of rehabilitation services will be provided to patients. Among other things, VR glasses will be used for recovery.

Journalists can learn more about the center’s operation and restoration efforts, interview the management of the facility, talk to doctors and, if possible, patients.

For reference: the Kyiv Regional Center for Mental Health is a specialized medical facility providing qualified inpatient medical examination, care and both social and vocational rehabilitation of patients with mental disorders.

• occupation
• reconstruction
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

On December 18, Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform will host the press conference entitled Persecution and humiliation: the reality of being a lawyer in occupied Crimea”

Participants:

• Daria Svyrydova, Ukraine 5AM Coalition expert, Law Firm AZONES partner;
• Roman Martynovskyy, lawyer, who left Sevastopol after the start of occupation, Lead Expert at Regional Center for Human Rights NGO;
• Vitaliy Sekretar, First Deputy Head of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol;
• Illya Kostin, lawyer, Head of the Department of Military Justice Development and Interaction with Law Enforcement Agencies of the Main Military Justice Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, Member of the Ukrainian Bar Association Board;

Topics of focus:

• What are the risks, the Crimean lawyers who continued working, acting in good faith as the occupation dragged on, handle?
• What are the strategies of the occupation authorities to put pressure on independent lawyers?
• What are the stigma-associated risk factors of indiscriminately labeling all lawyers who pursue a career under occupation as “collaborators”?

• occupation
• Kyiv