Last week the CivilMPlus exhibition “Civil society and activists during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” was shown in Utrecht and Paris.

On 24 February in Utrecht we together with local organisation Vitaln’ya presented the exhibition at an event dedicated to the anniversary of the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Representatives of CivilMPlus Secretariat Yuliya Erner and “Drukarnia” Civil Society Centre” (Ukraine) Kapitalina Pasikova and Nika Perepelitsa visited the event to tell stories of Ukrainian civil society in times of war.

The day before, on 23 February, the exhibition was shown at the Trade Union house in Paris 🇫🇷 during a meeting organised by the French Branch of the RESU/ENSU (European Network in Solidarity with Ukraine). The French version of the exhibition was created by the organisation Ukraine CombArt with support of the Assemblee Europeenne Citoyens – AEC.

The exhibition consists of visual stories of real people who counter Russia’s aggression in their own way, by providing for those who fight, bringing humanitarian aid, taking care of the refugees, lobbying for more active support for Ukraine by the international community, working with the consequences of the war and post-war reconstruction of the country. The stories of heroes and heroines demonstrate the range of activities that people are involved in to play their part and help others.

With these stories, we want to motivate the international community to support Ukraine, and the societies of the countries of the world to be ready to sacrifice some of their personal comfort in order to help others.

The artist is Masha Vyshedska.

The exhibition was created with the support of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.