By Olha Chepil | 2024-04-29

ZAPORIZHZHIA -- Ukrainians are defiantly holding cultural festivals as close as 40km from the front.

Zaporizhzhia, in southern Ukraine, was the country's sixth-largest city until 2022. But about 280,000 residents have left Zaporizhzhia province since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, local officials say.

Violent fighting rages steadily in the province as the Russian army bombards villages and towns, forcing inhabitants to move farther away from the front.

'Proud to be Ukrainian'

Despite the extreme danger in Zaporizhzhia, hundreds participated in a festival called "Proud to be Ukrainian" on April 20.

"In places without much population, there will be rampant death at the hands of Russia," Ivan Minchenko, a veteran of the Russia-Ukraine war and cofounder of the Rubikon Voli charity, said from the festival stage.

"We cannot allow the Russians to destroy life here," he said.

The festival organizers devoted much time to finding a safe venue in the city. Because air raid sirens are a constant and there are often incoming strikes in Zaporizhzhia, they chose one of the largest and soundest bomb shelters, in the Titan cultural center.

The shelter can accommodate up to 600 at the same time, said Mariana Mokrynska, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Association of Music Events (UAME) and an organizer of the Proud to be Ukrainian festival.

Since visitors "come in waves, we'll be able to accommodate everyone," she told Kontur ahead of the festival.

As it turned out, every seat was filled.

The Proud to be Ukrainian festival was the first of its kind held in a front-line city since the invasion.

Enhance Non-Governmental Actors and Grassroots Engagement (ENGAGE), a program that promotes activism and is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), organized the event along with UAME.

"The main goal is to inspire residents of the front-line cities, offer them hope and share culture with them," said Lina Romanukha, the culture manager and curator for ENGAGE.

"These days Zaporizhzhia is under constant shelling," she told Kontur. "According to statistics, the largest population group is displaced persons from villages and nearby towns in Zaporizhzhia province. [They] left everything behind or lost everything."

Culture must uplift the public in tough times, said festival organizers. They put colorful decorations on the building and built a professional stage inside the shelter.

"It's important to us to transform the gray post-Soviet space into something bright and modern," Romanukha said. "We reflected that in the design of this festival."

'We cannot surrender'

The festival kicked off with discussions of culture in wartime and of romance, in addition to lectures on the history of the Cossacks.

"Nowadays Ukrainians are very interested in their own history," Mokrynska said. "It's a way to identify us as a people. Things like that first and foremost inspire [us] to create something and stay in the country."

Because of the persistent shelling and air raid sirens, the majority of the children who remained in Zaporizhzhia cannot attend school.

To lift the children's spirits, the festival organizers set up a children's corner in the shelter and equipped it with games and toys, and held master classes.

For instance, children and their parents learned how to create motankas, talisman rag dolls made from yarn. They could also paint T-shirts and learn to draw Ukrainian patterns.

"The young are leaving and entire families have left because schooling was hard," Regina Kharchenko, a member of the Zaporizhzhia City Council, said onstage at the festival. "We cannot surrender. People of all ages are our most valuable asset."

Entrepreneurs -- a group whose numbers have thinned considerably in the city -- also gathered at the festival. Jewelry, paintings and clothing were on sale.

Before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Iryna Pasechnik was living in Mala Tokmachka village, Polohy district, Zaporizhzhia province.

She directed the cultural center in the village for a decade, but when the war broke out, she was forced to flee to Zaporizhzhia city with her husband and their children.

"In 2018, the cultural center where I was the director did a major renovation," she told Kontur.

"I recently received photos of it," she said. "The Russians had bombed it completely ... I cried for three days after I saw the photos."

Pasechnik then started a business making brooches and earrings by hand. She brought them to the festival to sell. The jewelry provides both a livelihood and therapy, she said.

When asked why she stays Zaporizhzhia, she had a simple answer:

"I'm staying in Zaporizhzhia because this is my land. It keeps us here."

'I'm staying'

In addition to panel discussions and master classes, the festival featured a photo exhibition called "I'm Staying" by photographer Polina Polikarpova, who visited various cities in Ukraine and talked to college students who had decided to remain in the country despite the war.

"Every story is very raw," she said. "This is a story about valiant young people. Of course, it's heartbreaking when you think about the conditions these young [Ukrainians] have to live in. This war is robbing them of wonderful years of their lives."

Supporting Ukrainian culture and helping it flourish are the most important weapon in the war against Russian propaganda, according to festival organizers.

They invited Ukrainian musicians to perform so residents of Zaporizhzhia could spend time dancing and experiencing Ukrainian music. The festival lasted for nine hours.

"Many [residents] don't have the option of leaving. Some of them have families, or husbands at the front. They've all made their choice. And we're pleased that we could make even one day in their lives happier," Mokrynska said.