Presented recently at the Publishers’ Forum in Lviv, photo album People of the Maidan. A Chronicle, part of Den’s Library series, has already started traveling the world and Ukraine. The restless Donbas is no exception. In particular, this newspaper will deliver six copies of the album to Ukrainian soldiers who defend the independence of our country in the east. One of them, Master Sergeant Viktor of the Lviv-based 80th Detached Airmobile Brigade, was in the heaviest fighting. His unit came under fire from Russian rocket launchers near the village of Pobieda, Novoaidar raion, in early September. Many civilians died on that day. “We met the boys for the first time just after the shelling,” civic volunteer and activist of Starobilsk NGO Freedom Natalia Ponomariova, who delivered Den’s gifts to the soldiers, told us. “We brought them everyday items, as the boys did not even have drinking vessels for water, as all their equipment had burned down. After some talking, it turned out that many of the men were at the Euromaidan. When we showed the album to Viktor, he went all thoughtful, there was a slight pause, he looked like remembering something. As he later confessed, it seemed to him like he was there again when he was browsing through pictures. I, for my part, immediately found a photo of our friend, the five-year-old girl from Starobilsk who was pictured holding poster ‘Choke on Your New Year Tree’ [an anti-Yanukovych poster, as the former president justified his crackdown against the protesters with the need to make place for a New Year tree in Kyiv. – Ed.]. Viktor is a businessman and has joined the army during the mobilization. He brought activists to the Euromaidan by his car. Once his comrades were done browsing through Den’s gift, Viktor sent the album home to Lviv. The publication was enjoyed by his family as well. According to Viktor’s wife, photographs convey the entire constellation of frenzied emotions that raged in the center of the capital in those months, reflecting both grief and celebration.
Ponomariova told us that none of her military interlocutors had become disappointed in the ideals of the Revolution of Dignity. “They do not see the current armed conflict as a consequence of the revolution,” Ponomariova told us. “Most of them believe that the Euromaidan was only the last straw that brought forward what had to happen anyway.” According to her, our soldiers are having it hard in the Donbas now, as recent days saw a significant temperature drop and constant rains, while they have to sleep outdoors in the steppe. Volunteers try to help soldiers with warm clothes. The soldiers perceive the so-called truce skeptically, as attacks continue and losses mount.
A copy of photo album People of the Maidan. A Chronicle is also waiting for Yurii, a volunteer soldier from the Aidar battalion. He was personally present during the shootings in Hrushevsky Street in February, and some of his friends were killed then. Yurii is now being treated as he has injured his spine during a raid to detain separatists. Copies of the photo album have been delivered to soldiers from the battalions Donbas, Dnipro, and Svitiaz. Activists of NGO Freedom also continue to distribute latest issues of Den amid the military. This initiative has turned to be very important as information hunger is prevalent at the frontlines. “The boys were especially glad to see their pictures in the newspaper,” Ponomariova told us. “We sent a few copies to the soldiers’ families, as requested by them.”
