In France, Ukrainian activists and human rights defenders discussed the conflict in Donbas

In the French city of Nantes, within the framework of Summer University of Social Movements and Solidarity, the international civil society platform CivilMPlus organized a discussion on Ukraine: about the war, politics and activism.

The presentation was delivered by Maksym Osadchuk, an activist and an IDP from Crimea, and Yulia Chistyakova, legal analytic at the East-Ukrainian Centre for Civic Initiatives. They talked about the beginning and development of the armed conflict, about the victims and destruction in Donbas, the current situation and the ongoing shelling. Nearly 50 attendees of the Summer University took part in the discussion, including the representatives of the old leftist organization “Movement for Peace”, who sharply criticized the position of the speakers.

“This is a specific audience,” says Anne Le Huerou, a member of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, an organization that coordinated the Ukrainian debate in Nantes. “Many have an anti-American stance since the Cold War, and some people in France support the idea of ​​Russian statehood as a counterbalance to the United States, not understanding or not being interested in what modern Russia is.”

That is why it was important to present an objective situation based on facts and information from primary sources.

“The most important thing is to give the floor to those whom it concerns, so we are very glad to be talking about Ukraine with Ukrainians. When people from the conflict zone, activists, lawyers come, it is easier to step aside from ideological prejudices and talk about a specific situation, about facts,” concludes Anne Le Huerou.

That is why it was important to present an objective situation based on facts and information from primary sources.

“The most important thing is to give the floor to those whom it concerns, so we are very glad to be talking about Ukraine with Ukrainians. When people from the conflict zone, activists, lawyers come, it is easier to step aside from ideological prejudices and talk about a specific situation, about facts,” concludes Anne Le Huerou.

Such trips and discussions are one of the tools in the information war. To counteract Russian propaganda, one should not ignore different positions, but listen to them, enter into a dialogue, and tell the truth”, says Maksym Osadchuk.

“We lost the information war to Russia even before it started, because we do not have and would not use such money and such channels as RT. What we can do at our level to ensure information protection is to go and talk and try not to get annoyed if opinions heard in the seventh year of the war are difficult for us to understand. Many people, even in Europe, have their heads full of Russian propaganda, and they associate Russia with the Soviet bloc, with Soviet romance,” he said.

Sowing a grain of doubt even among several dozen activists is already good,” said human rights activist Yulia Chistyakova: “When discussing the further fate of the conflict, we must appeal only to facts and speak the truth: both in the international and in the domestic space. This is the only way to overcome stigma, including in Ukrainian society.”

Such discussions are part of the information work of the CivilMPlus platform carried out by its member organizations in Ukraine and the EU countries. The project “Dialogue for understanding and justice: European NGOs working together for conflict resolution in Donbas” is implemented with the financial support of the German Federal Foreign Office.