The exhibition is dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Charter on a Distinctive Partnership between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and is entitled “NATO-Ukraine: The Security Formula.” The display was created with the support of the NATO Information and Documentation Center in Ukraine, the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center.
Director of the NATO Information and Documentation Center in Ukraine Barbora Maronkova and head of the Sumy Oblast State Administration Mykola Klochko took part in the opening of the exhibition.
Maronkova conducted a free tour, with most of its participants being Sumy college students. NATO’s history as an organization; background and facts of NATO support for Ukrainian soldiers; the NATO program “Science for Peace and Security”; exhibition “Heroes of Ukraine – participants of the NATO Mission”; NATO standard first-aid kits – this information and more will be available to visitors of the exhibition, which is the first for Sumy.
“We strive to convey the NATO ideas to the broadest possible audience, to acquaint people with the practical features of the organization’s work. But most importantly, we aim to dispel many myths about NATO that still exist in Ukrainian society, to tell people how and why NATO responds to security challenges in Ukraine and in the world,” Maronkova said.
“Despite the fact that the Sumy oblast has historically bordered on Russia – the aggressor country, the mood of people here is pro-European,” noted head of the Sumy Oblast State Administration Klochko. “According to public opinion surveys, 69 percent of the region’s residents support Ukraine joining the EU, and 60 percent of them support Ukraine joining NATO. And this is so despite the fact that ours is a northeastern region of Ukraine. I am grateful to organizers for holding such an exhibition, which helps to show people that the European choice is the only correct one for Ukraine, and that accession to NATO is a well-thought-out and justified decision, which has already been made by other countries that were formerly constituent parts of the USSR.”
The exhibition can be visited at the congress center of Sumy State University at 2, Pokrovska Street until December 22 inclusive, and then at the university’s library at 2, Rymskoho-Korsakova Street.
