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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛИПЕНЬ - СЕРПЕНЬ 2018 WWW. UNWLA .ORG 7 On June 13, 2018, the UNWLA joined UCCA’s a p- peal and called for a one - day hunger strike on the eve of the FIFA World Cup in Russia as an act of political protest to call attention to Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, as well as to the 60 other Ukrainian political prisoners who are being held in Rus sian prisons. Sentsov, who opposed Moscow's takeover of Crimea and is now in prison in Russia, started a hunger strike on May 1 4 to demand the release of all Ukrainian nationals held in Russian penitentiaries. The Ukrainian National Women’s League of Ameri ca called on its members to share their activism with others through social media. We all vividly remember another Ukrain- ian political prisoner, Nadiya Savchenko, who boldly stated “I will arrive home, dead or alive!” while she was held captive in Russia. And on May 25, 2016 , she did indeed return home following a prisoner swap. This transpired just two years ago but it feels like it’s been ages. Since then, Nadiya Savchenko, a Hero of Ukraine, one of the most rec- ognizable icons of recent Ukraine history, w as stripped of her MP immunity and arrested. In the past two years the one - time symbol of patriotism had allegedly turned into an organizer of a poten- tial terrorist attack on the state, aiming at destroy- ing the Ukrainian leadership and overthrowing the gov ernment. Even for those of us who closely fol- low current events in Ukraine, this sounded almost absurd, unbelievable, shocking. We all asked: "How did this happen? What is left for us to believe in?” And the answer lies in witnessing a recurrence of Moscow ’s subversive activities against Ukraini- ans and Ukraine. Today, Oleh Sentsov remains in the inter- national spotlight since declaring a hunger strike. The Russian president has two options as to how to deal with this “spotlight.” He could simply agree to fr ee the filmmaker or he could continue to claim that Sentsov is a “terrorist” and “rely on Russia’s propaganda media and obliging friends in other countries to join their efforts in spreading disinfor- mation” (this according to the Kharkiv Human Rights Prote ction Group.) During the first week of June, a major piece of disinformation about Sen- tsov unbelievably came from within Ukraine. Me- dia mogul Yevhen Muraev, who is also a member of Ukraine’s parliament, made an accusatory and offensive assertion about Sent sov in a public broadcast on TV 112. This appears to have been part of a massive disinformation campaign begun by Muraev’s TV channel and followed by a number of other media outlets. It was a gift, plain and sim- ple, to the Russian president because Russian state - controlled media could now claim that a Ukrainian MP had “called Sentsov a terrorist!” The waters have been muddied and doubt has been planted. What will be the ultimate outcome? So, we (the diaspora worldwide), with trust in patriotism and strengt h of character, are again protesting and putting ourselves on the line of de- fense of an innocent person. For without that pure faith and deep belief in good, who would we be as a people? as individuals? what would we become? In my opinion, it is far better to be asking “How did this happen?” when we are disappointed than to be asking from the onset “Should we believe? Should we trust? Should we act?” In this land that is so blessed, may you rejoice and enjoy your Independence Day on July 4th! Step out wit h confidence, remembering that someone paid the price so we could be free. God bless America! And in commemoration of the Ukrainian Declaration of Independence of 1991 , let us rejoice on August 24, remembering the more than 10,300 persons who paid the price so that Ukrainians could be free since that declaration was proclaimed! Slava Ukraini !
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