From October 1, the film Witnesses. To the North of Kyiv, made by the Ukraine War Archive team, is available to watch on the Ukraїner YouTube channel.
Witnesses. To the North of Kyiv is a documentary created from interviews which the Ukraine War Archive team has been collecting since 2022. These are stories of five brave residents of the Kyiv Region who survived Russian occupation but never stopped resisting even for a moment. Delivering humanitarian cargo, rescuing our troops from encirclement, medical aid provision, cooking for our fighters or just for the cats of Moshchun—all of these are large and small acts of personal heroism which inspire us and give us strength to continue fighting.
The film premiered at the 20th Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival.
“Ukraine War Archive and Ukraїner have been partners for a year now. As we store and organise the video materials in the project, we never cease to admire the stories, their heroes and heroines, and the accessible and deep tone in which they speak about this war. These are historic materials without any exaggeration. We are glad to have an opportunity to have a premiere with Ukraїner, because our stories are also about resistance, the resistance of ordinary people, about the bravery of Ukrainians which has amazed the entire world. We are preparing the next episodes of Witnesses and plan to release them together with Ukraїner soon,” comments Roman Bondarchuk, Head of Ukraine War Archive.
“Despite all the horrors that people have experienced, every time I’m full of admiration, inspiration, and motivation to move forward and read news about how they resisted. At some point we realised that we must share this. That is how the Witnesses project began,” says filmmaker Tetiana Symon about the project.
Ukraine War Archive* is a field of work implemented in cooperation between NGO Docudays (Ukraine) and Infoscope Ltd (UK); it stores documentation of the events of the full-scale invasion. An important part of the Ukraine War Archive project are interviews with witnesses of war crimes and events of the war which can help with future investigations and the eventual punishment of russians.
If:
– your house has been damaged or robbed by russian troops;
– you were forced to evacuate from your hometown and start building your life from scratch;
– you were an eyewitness of violence against civilians;
– you have witnessed crimes committed by russian troops;
– you know what it is like to live under occupation;
– or you want to share a story about your experience of living through the war,
join the collection of information about the events of the full-scale invasion. If you are prepared to share your experience of the war with the project team, fill out the form — https://bit.ly/war-archive-witness-form — or simply call the number +380669996633. Every story is important!
*Ukraine War Archive is a non-public resource. Access to it can be obtained after a background check and authorisation. Information in the Archive has three levels of access to materials. This ensures protection of personal and sensitive information. The Archive exists in several copies. Access to the platform is regulated by cyber security protocols and instruments.
This means that the provided testimonies are safely protected from outside eyes. Only selected Ukraine War Archive employees and its partners — human rights advocates and law enforcement agencies — can access them. The testimonies can only become public with prior consent of the respondents.
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This event has been created by the Ukraine War Archive project with support from ISAR Ednannia as a part of the Initiative for Sectoral Support of Civil Society project, implemented by ISAR Ednannia in consortium with the Ukrainian Independent Centre for Political Research (UICPR) and the Centre for Democracy and the Rule of Law (CEDEM) thanks to the sincere support of the American nation provided via the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation and Razom for Ukraine. Together towards Victory!.
The film has been created with the support of the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine, Prague Civil Society Centre, Razom for Ukraine. Together towards Victory!, and the Czech organisation People in Need, as a part of the SOS Ukraine initiative.
The opinions, conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily reflect the views of the governments or charities of these countries. Responsibility for the contents of the publication is borne solely by the authors and editors of the publication.
