Our hero shares his vision of Ukraine with love and emphasizes the importance of the unity of the Ukrainian people and state. He talks about his acquaintance with Roman Ratushnyi, fighting for Protasiv Yar, and shares his dreams about developing culture in Ukraine.
In an interview for #shotam, you mentioned that culture is as fragile as marble. Can you explain why?
We organized a big tour of poetry evenings in 2021. There were 46 events in total. At that time I thought that because pro-russian artists like Loboda or Maruv had a concert in Ukraine. After Maidan people started to forget that culture is so important. We are fighting for our future at the military, information and cultural fronts. There’s no need to take a step back, because Maidan is a step forward. Ukrainian musicians performing songs in russian can create a precedent for a fragile culture that can roll back. So at that time, those words were absolutely relevant to me.
However, after February 24, everything began to change and new cultural and literary projects started to emerge. Finally, people realized that this is what will help us to de-russify our population and ourselves at first. Because Ukraine begins from you, and it’s very strange to sing some beautiful songs about ukrainization, but to speak russian in everyday life and respect all russian poets. This is a bit of nonsense, so now our culture is not as fragile as marble. There are Kvartyra 23, Postril, Kripak Magazine, which continue to work even after the full-scale invasion. MUR was founded and they are fantastic. Andrii Shymanovskyi, who promoted Ukrainian language when it was strange and unpopular. There are too many examples to prove what a huge step we have taken for our culture.
However, over the past year, we have been taking steps backwards because of decreasing support for the Armed Forces from the population. But this is normal, it is evolution. The main thing is to continue to develop, create spaces and various projects that would help the Ukrainian people rise like a phoenix from the ashes. Obviously, war takes away the best people, like Roman Ratushnyi. In short, the best people are leaving us, and we need to take their place and strive for this perfection for the sake of Ukraine, our city, friends, acquaintances and ourselves. As Serhii Zhadan said in his song, nothing will be solved on its own.
What is your role in the MUR project?
I’m just its decoration (laughs), a reliable guy. If they need to film something, I go to help them. If they ask me to promote MUR, I will do it. I am not a part of this team. I just help them, because it was clear from their first song (What did you say?) that this would be something great. So I truly recommend going to their page, listen to it, and donate some money to them. Because from my own experience, I can say that it’s hard to promote culture without money. Of course, there are grants and a cultural foundation, but not everyone likes that. That’s why it would be great if projects like Marmur and MUR were developed.
Protasiv Yar – what is the current status of the case? I know that there was a hearing in February. Did you feel pressure from your opponents?
The trial was incredible. This is such a theater of the absurd. City developers cannot restrain themselves emotionally, nor can they keep themselves within the boundaries of culture. This anger, aggression, and they still hope that the court will allow them to build up Protasiv Yar on the bones of Roman Ratushny. I heard that they burned down a park in Osokorky, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they burn Protasiv Yar soon.
We’ve been at war for 10 years, so what’s the point of investing money in drones? What’s the point of city developers investing in the Armed Forces instead of a new building? No, they need to build up Protasiv Yar and destroy the bank of Dnipro. As Anatolii Lupynis said: «life goes on, the war goes on». We will not allow you to build up Yar on the bones of Roman Ratushny. No one will give it to you. We have been fighting for this Protasiv Yar for 20 years. None will allow you to do this after the death of Roman Ratushny at war.
How Roman Ratushnyi and you were related?
I met Roman when our government tried to put him in a detention center. Before that, he had been hunted by killers for six months. They tried to put him in jail for watering the doors of the city developer’s administration. Despite the fact that the only evidence was a black photo with highlights, where allegedly was Roman. They immediately insisted on a pre-trial detention center. Well, you understand the nonsense of the situation.
I didn’t know him until 2021. Then I wrote to him, wondering what kind of surreal thing is going on, how is this possible? I recorded Stus’s poem «There are no chains that can strangle you» in Tavriisk in order to support Roman, and we spread this story on social media. He was wearing the sweatshirt that we made him for the trial, with a photo from the Maidan, where everything was covered in flags and were written Lina Kostenko’s statement «there is a struggle for the fate of Ukraine». There was no logo, nothing like that. It was just support for him as a person who is going to be imprisoned for no reason. We need to help each other and not let the best people be tortured.
The first time we met at his house because he was wearing an electronic tagging. Roman introduced me to his mother and his dog. We talked about the idea of statehood and culture. Then he proposed to move to Protasiv Yar. I planned to do that on March 8, 2022, because I was finishing up my business and I didn’t have time. Roman was a very rational person, spiritual, intelligent, brilliant, and he was preparing for the detention center. Although I told him that you will not go there. The pre-trial detention center is the destruction of your health, both physical and mental. They wanted to imprison Serhii Sternenko in jail as well, but the case against him was recently closed. Roman introduced me to him as well. The last time we saw each other was near the Verkhovna Rada before he was killed in the Kharkiv region. We had to make clothes for his soldiers with the legendary phrase «the more russians we kill now, the less russians our children will have to kill».
At first, we have to help our military, our boys and girls, so they can survive. Secondly, we have to help our soldiers in the civilian front. We love them, we understand them, we help them in hospitals and provide psychological assistance. We look at them as live people, not as the used fighting material. Thirdly, we have to develop our culture. What are we fighting for, by the way? For having Pushkin monument in Odesa or for Stus in every city?
How would you like to see Ukrainian culture to develop?
Cultural borders can not be erased, only the physical borders of our country are being destroyed by russia, here and now.
My vision is very simple: to build Ukraine with love. There is Ukraine on fire, we can see it. It is important that the state is united with the people and vice versa. If we are united with Europe, with America; if we reform the judicial system, the police; if we get our political opponents out of prison; if we honor the fallen soldiers; if we allocate money for the army, not just one percent of the budget. Then we will win for sure.
What is Ukraine with love? It’s the equivalent of Ukraine on fire. I don’t remember a time in my life when it wasn’t on fire. Since childhood, we have been hearing jokes about the Ukrainians. For example, that we steal gas or our language is only for laughs. Our de-russification will continue as long as there are chauvinists in our cities and our streets are named after Russian figures.
Why do I love Ukraine? Because I want to live in a decent country. Everything is very simple, life is elementary. Why have we been promoting culture for 5 years? To make it flourish in this country. Young people will start growing up reading poetry Stus’s poetry, not on Instagram. Every day I try to do something good.
It’s an incredible feeling when you see that people are switching to Ukrainian because of your work. Poems by Ukrainian authors are already in America, Canada, Europe, and even in Belgorod, all of it is possible because of our T-shirts.
It turns out that war is terrible and people die, including children. That is why we have to help the frontline, to protest against injustice and corruption, here and now. We have to fight every day for our decent state. We have to dive into Ukrainian culture and the culture of the world into our souls every day. As Stus wrote: «we have to shine to others, we have to fight for every sunrise».
The material was produced with the support of the NGO «Institute of Mass Information» as part of a project of the international organisation Internews Network.
