Dmytro Yavornytsky Historical Museum in Dnipropetrovsk is hosting an exhibition of chevrons worn by soldiers of the ATO. The unique collection is housed in one of the halls of the Battle of the Dnieper diorama. According to the organizers, it displays over 500 items collected by the young women who do volunteer work in the soldier rest corner operating at Dnipropetrovsk railway station. This volunteer-staffed corner admits Ukrainian soldiers who travel to the ATO area or go home. Dozens of ATO soldiers come there every day and leave their chevrons and other souvenirs to the volunteers as a token of respect and gratitude for the care and warm welcome offered there. Over the year, volunteers have accumulated a whole collection of arm-badges.
The newly-opened exhibition displays a variety of chevrons belonging to individual brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, National Guard, and volunteer battalions as well as the famous badges made for soldiers by volunteers, like these inscribed Ukrop or Cyborg, as well as civilian chevrons formerly belonging to physicians and volunteers themselves. According to one of the organizers, volunteer Natalia Khazan, who works for the National Defense Fund, there is a veritable heroic story behind each exhibit, because they accompanied their owners to the hottest sections of the front. The chevron exhibition is supplemented by displays of charms, bracelets, photographs, other personal effects of soldiers who donated them to the volunteers, as well as artifacts from the ATO area including flags, ammunition boxes, and camouflage nets. The exhibition will last for a month, after which the chevrons will return to their proper place in the volunteer corner at the railway station. According to the organizers of the military exhibition, when the Donbas war is over, the chevrons will be donated to the Dnipropetrovsk Yavornytsky Historical Museum, where the first Ukrainian ATO museum should be opened in a month.
