{"id":7566,"date":"2022-03-15T17:10:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T17:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/action-of-visibility-and-solidarity-with-ukrainian-artists-through-the-new-network-of-playwrights\/"},"modified":"2022-07-19T17:42:10","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T17:42:10","slug":"action-of-visibility-and-solidarity-with-ukrainian-artists-through-the-new-network-of-playwrights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/action-of-visibility-and-solidarity-with-ukrainian-artists-through-the-new-network-of-playwrights\/","title":{"rendered":"Action of visibility and solidarity with Ukrainian artists through the NEW network of playwrights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Heartefact\u2019s NEW network, which brings together the most important playwrights from Europe, has launched an action of visibility and solidarity with Ukrainian artists, anti-war activists and colleagues who are currently experiencing the tragedy of war destruction, siege, aggression and suffering.<\/strong> \n \nOur network has established contact between colleagues from Europe and our patron\u00a0Neda Nejdana<\/strong>, a playwright and her partner, writer and director\u00a0Oleksandr Miroshnichenko \/ Oleksandr Viter<\/strong>, who, at this time, after fleeing from Kiev and then from the surrounding villages, are located in the city of Chernivtsi, where the theater became their shelter and space for living and working. Numerous Ukrainian artists organize, write, translate and publish texts about their experience and invite colleagues across Europe to help them be visible and have their voices be heard. \n \nHeartefact and all members of the NEW network translate and publish testimonies such as Neda Nejdana\u2019s letter, which we publish in European languages \u200b\u200b(French<\/a>,\u00a0Italian<\/a>,\u00a0Spanish<\/a>,\u00a0German<\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Dear friends,<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Thank you very much for your support, it\u2019s very important to us. As long as I\u2019m alive, I\u2019ll strive to express my sincere thoughts, my gratitude for the times we\u2019ve spent together. Myself, my family, my cat and my dog are alive. We spent one night in an anti-aircraft shelter in Kyiv, the second in a basement, and we\u2019ve barely slept for three nights. That\u2019s the state of most Ukrainian civilians who are hiding in shelters and subway stations. Three babies have already been born in the Kyiv subway\u2026. We\u2019ve moved to the Village, maybe a little safer here than in Kyiv. I have already learned to distinguish by sound the different types of enemy equipment flying over to kill us. Intermittently we have Internet and mobile communications. We have a little now, so I\u2019m writing. I thank everybody who have offered help and asylum, but it\u2019s still doubtful whether it would be possible to move around in Ukraine. To be in a house or an anti-aircraft shelter seems a bit safer than moving around, but up until now, all of Ukraine, all of the world could be attacked.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

What I feel is anger and rage. It\u2019s as though our entire country has been taken hostage by terrorists, maniacal killers. It\u2019s difficult to describe the hell that we\u2019re in, all the inhabitants of Ukraine, without discriminating by nationality, language, religion, etc. The governments of Russia and Byelorussia, their armies, are doing everything to destroy us, all of us. Almost all of Ukraine is under attack, in particular Kiev. Missiles, bombs, airplanes, helicopters, tanks, armored vehicles, well as toys and smartphones with explosives\u2026. tens of thousands of assassins.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Rockets have hit residential buildings, a children\u2019s garden, an orphanage, a children\u2019s hospital\u2026 One of the houses bombed in Kiev wasn\u2019t far from mine, another house was close to the maternity ward\u2026. Diversionary reconnaissance teams with machine guns have spread out through Kiev and are killing people in the streets. About 200 people have been killed and thousands injured, including children. It\u2019s neofascist. Putin is no better than Hitler. He also uses Stalinist methods. For example, his lies and his disguise as somebody else \u2013 so the Russians have breached one of Kiev\u2019s checkpoints.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

The destruction of Ukraine has been the objective of Putin and his supporters since the beginning. They\u2019ve lied constantly about us: about our history, about our Revolution of Dignity, calling people Nazis if they had an international objective \u2013 association with the EU, on the occupation of Crimea and the Donbass, and now as well. But our soldiers are extremely brave.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

And people are lined up over all Ukraine for territorial defense and blood donations. The Putin Blitzkrieg has failed. During these days, here are the figures of Russian losses: 29 planes, 198 tanks, more than 5000 dead and about 200 prisoners\u2026 They weren\u2019t expecting such fierce resistance, this is the biggest loss the Russian army has suffered in modern times. But Russia is bigger than Ukraine\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n

This is very tough on us psychologically, but we are not despairing. Almost all my relatives, colleagues, friends, acquaintances have stayed in Ukraine and are resisting to the extent they can \u2013 by arming themselves, or by supporting soldiers in a variety of ways. This is our land, and truth and justice stand at our backs. We did not choose victory or death but they are our reality. Occupation means killings, torture, and concentration camps. That\u2019s what I fear more than anything. But I won\u2019t let myself believe it. And I think that\u2019s true of most people in Ukraine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Anger and rage win out over fear.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

I\u2019m not asking for help on my own behalf, but before anything for the protection of our country. This war didn\u2019t start yesterday, but at the latest in November 2013, when Putin forbid our country to join the EU, and our revolutionaries were killed in solidarity with other Europeans [the Euromaidan demonstrations]. The hybrid war of 2014 and today\u2019s war aim, in the big picture, for the complete destruction of Ukraine \u2013 it\u2019s precisely neo-Nazism, the genocide of the Ukrainian people. Expressing himself in a press conference with the president of France, Putin explicitly declared, quoting a vulgar song, that he wanted to \u201crape a dead Ukrainian in a coffin\u201d.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n

He and his partisans don\u2019t just hate us, they hate the entire democratic world. Be assured, If they destroy us, they won\u2019t stop there, but will continue to make war with other countries. The nations of the world made a terrible mistake in pardoning and tolerating Russian aggression against Chechnya, Moldavia, Georgia, Syria, and Ukraine. It is this impunity, this indifference and this supremacy of financial interests over assassinations and occupations that have given rise to this war.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

In 2008, as the Russian army approached the Georgian capital, our president Yushchenko, alongside other presidents, arrived in Tbilisi. Instead of that, before this war almost every diplomat left Ukraine. I\u2019m not inviting anyone here, but if anyone is interested in our feelings on this, that hurt us and we feel alone in this hell.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n

We need support.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

We\u2019re thankful for the sanctions, but up to now it\u2019s been very little, they haven\u2019t stopped the aggressors. More effective help is needed. We have to persuade governments to create a no-fly zone so Russian airplanes etc can\u2019t attack anymore. Also, we need the entire world to sever economic relationships with the aggressors in order to weaken them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Tell your governments that.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Our defenders still need help. I am sending the contact information for the Come Back Alive Foundation where you can transfer funds: [Patreon has shut down their account for international donations; their facebook page is\u00a0facebook.com\/backandalive<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n\n

I think you could also distribute publications and create public and artistic actions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Colleagues in Poland have proposed a reading of my play in order to raise money for Ukraine. My colleague Oleksandr Viter and I are making rights available for free for all forms of distribution of our plays in any translation, perhaps as readings, if they help to bring public attention to the truth about Russian aggression, and to collect funds for the defense of our country.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

\u00a0I believe other Ukrainian playwrights would join this initiative. Among these are plays on Maidan and the war in English, French, Turkish, Polish, and Serbian. There are still as yet untranslated Ukrainian plays about the war, including anthologies of new plays \u201cMaidan before and after\u201d and \u201cLabyrinth of Ice and Fire\u201d. I can send these texts. If there is a connection and the physical opportunity, I can reply to questions from the media on what is happening in Ukraine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

I must thank you again for your support.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

We want to survive, please, help the Ukraine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

With love,<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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\n \nNeda Nejdana<\/em> \n \n<\/div> \n<\/div> \n<\/div> \n<\/article><\/div> \n