Victor Pinchuk Foundation Opened UKRAINE IS YOU Exhibition on the Occasion of the Munich Security Conference

Victor Pinchuk Foundation and the PinchukArtCentre in cooperation with the Office of the President of Ukraine, today opened the UKRAINE IS YOU exhibition, on the occasion of the Munich Security Conference (MSC). It invites visitors to be Ukrainian for a moment while warning that what is happening to Ukraine is equally a threat to others. It is an experience enabling others to share some moments of power endured by Ukrainians defending freedom in the face of the suffering that many Ukrainians were, and still are, subjected to, during the Russian aggression.

The speakers at the opening stressed the importance of drawing the attention of world leaders to the war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, and subsequently, of holding Russia accountable for its brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Among the speakers of the opening were: Wolfgang Ischinger, Ambassador (ret.), President, MSC Foundation Council; Senior Fellow, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin; John Kerry, US Former Secretary of State; Siemtje Möller, Parliamentary State Secretary for Defense of Germany; Victor Pinchuk, Founder, YES, Victor Pinchuk Foundation, EastOne Group; Andrij Yermak, Head, Office of the President of Ukraine.

Opening the exhibition, Victor Pinchuk stressed the importance of informing the world about the war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, including with the help of exhibitions: “Ukrainians will never give up. The only question is how many Ukrainians will die before we stop this war. The answer to this, for the most part, lies in your hands, in the hands of our Western friends, because you can make powerful decisions, and near the end of the war. This is the exact idea behind this exhibition, because we believe that this war has many fronts.”

“The art is an extremely powerful weapon. It can help world leaders and decision makers to better understand their responsibility through emotions. We are hoping that they will visit this exhibition, realize their responsibility and send to Ukraine more weapons, including fighter jets and missiles, as much and as fast as possible. We believe that this exhibition will contribute to our victory,” the businessman stressed.

“Unfortunately, we have to update the exhibition every time it opens on a new venue, because we get new images of Russian war crimes nearly every day,” he added recollecting that the exhibition was inaugurated during the World Economic Forum in May 2022 and has been shown in several European capitals ever since.

Andrij Yermak addressed the audience via a video link, raising the issue of the crime of aggression committed by Russia against Ukraine: “We will never feel safe unless we punish those who unleashed this war. The fastest and easiest way to reach this goal is to set up a special tribunal to try the Russian leadership for the crime of aggression. Europe and the entire civilized world understand why this is necessary.”

“Establishing a special international tribunal to investigate the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine would be the most important step towards stripping immunity.  I want you to support Ukraine on this issue,” he emphasized.

Despite international support on this matter and some progress in the process towards establishing such a tribunal, a “new risk” has emerged, he noted: “Some states spoke in favor of a hybrid tribunal, which is unacceptable for Ukraine.” It’s not an option for Ukraine, because it gives no guarantee that “it will lead us to strip Putin, Lavrov, Mishustin and others of immunity”, he stressed.

Yermak informed that as of early February, over 60,000 Russian war crimes were recorded in Ukraine, including 155 cases of sexual violence. Over 9,500 civilians, including 461 children, have been killed since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he added. Around 78,000 infrastructure facilities have been damaged or completely destroyed, he proceeded.

Taking the floor, John Kerry said: “You cannot meet in Munich and talk about security without standing up against what is happening in Ukraine.”

“You cannot just go on day to day and do business as usual without drawing the world’s attention to this kind of activities. The people of Ukraine deserve our attention. They deserve the world standing up to the laws that they are fighting for,” he stressed.

“President Putin asserts cynically that this is somehow an anti-Nazi enterprise that he is engaged in Ukraine, but we all know better - this is about his dream and grievances with respect to the behavior of 25-30 years, which could never excuse the kind of activities that we have seen in Ukraine,” Kerry said.

Taking the floor, Wolfgang Ischinger said: “It is essential to have this element within this conference because this is the first conference in the memory where a major nuclear power is conducting a war of aggression in the heart of Europe. This is a crime aimed at subrogation, domination and elimination of a neighboring country. This is not only a problem for Ukraine, this is also a problem for Europe, NATO and the world.”

Siemtje Möller, in turn, said: “Thanks to the photographs in this exhibition, we can see that the war crimes are happening. This is something concrete that is happening every day. From these photographs we can also take the evidence of what has happened on the soil of Ukraine.”

The first chapter of the exhibition is built around a film by Oleksii Say on Russian war crimes. It is constructed from thousands of photographs and videos that are part of an evidence-collecting effort to document and prove Russian War Crimes in Ukraine. Complemented by informative maps and statistics, this chapter shows a reality in Ukraine since the start of the war while giving a face to some of those affected by the crimes that Russians commit in Ukraine to this very day.

The exhibition's second chapter is a multichannel film work by Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei from the recently liberated Kherson. It shows the beauty and resilience of Kherson as a city as well as its citizens who were under nine months of occupation. It shares what liberation means and gives voice to gratitude and optimism, as well as memories of torture, death, and fear, and insights into today’s life under threats from the continuous Russian siege and shelling.

UKRAINE IS YOU is organized by Victor Pinchuk Foundation and PinchukArtCentre in cooperation with the Office of the President of Ukraine. Itt is open for the MSC participants on 17-19 February 2023 at Hotel Bayerischer Hof, Munich.

The exhibition was first shown in Davos during the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in January 2023. To find more information, please go to www.ukraineisyou.org

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