Yesterday, The Harriman Institute, Columbia University, New York, hosted an event entitled “Kidnapped Childhood: Russia\u2019s War on Ukraine\u2019s Children”, which was attended by Dr. Volodymyr Venher, Dean of the Faculty of Law of the National University of \u201cKyiv-Mohyla Academy\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Harriman Institute brought together the founder of Save Ukraine, Mykola Kuleba, filmmaker Tetiana Khodakivska, and artist Alevtina Kakhidze, who explored different aspects of Russian war crimes against the children of Ukraine in a conversation with Harriman Director Valentina Izmirlieva.<\/p>\n
This event featured the premiere of an art exhibit, the first showing of original artworks created by Ukrainian contemporary artists in collaboration with children, depicting their experiences in what is commonly kown as Russian re-education camps. Save Ukraine has rescued these children.<\/p>\n
The artworks were created in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions of Ukraine as part of a mixed-media documentary project about propaganda and manipulation of information, titled \u2018The Blue Sweater with a Yellow Hole,\u2018 by Tetiana Khodakivska and Alevtina Kakhidze. In the two research expeditions, a team trained in trauma awareness and trauma sensitive interview documented stories of the 55 children, evoking memories about manipulations, mental torment, punishments, isolation, stays in psychiatric clinics, and military training.<\/p>\n