On 12 November Odesa hosted the international forum “Women of Freedom: Ukrainian Dissident Women”. Bucha was represented by Yuliia Shkurupii, head of the Berehynia Myru charity foundation and a volunteer with the Bucha Witches defence unit.
This was reported by Bucha City Council.
Shkurupii spoke about Liubov Panchenko, a Bucha artist of the 1960s generation and a dissident who defended Ukrainian identity through her art, Ukrainian clothing and ornament. Hers was among the ten names of dissident women to whom the forum was dedicated.
She also presented Bucha as a town that survived occupation but did not submit, and drew a parallel between the dissidents’ struggle against Soviet terror and Ukrainians’ resistance today.
The forum also discussed the role of women in the fight for Ukraine, from preserving culture to volunteering and defending the country. The volunteers of the Bucha Witches were cited as an example of women’s resistance today.
Fifty years of the Helsinki Group
The forum marked the 50th anniversary of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, a human rights group formed on 9 November 1976. Its founders included two women: Oksana Meshko and Nina Strokata, a native of Odesa.
The forum’s other heroines were Nadiia Svitlychna, Iryna Senyk, Iryna Kalynets, Oksana Popovych, Dariia Husiak, Stefaniia Shabatura, Halyna Mohylnytska and Liubov Panchenko, the only woman from Bucha on the list.
Photo: Bucha City Council
Liubov Panchenko was born in Bucha in 1938. A laureate of the Vasyl Stus Prize and an honorary citizen of Bucha, she died on 30 April 2022, after living through the occupation.
In September a memorial room dedicated to the artist opened at the Bucha Centre of Culture and Arts, which bears her name. It is based on a collection put together by the Berehynia Myru foundation: sketches and belongings rescued from her damaged house.
As a reminder, a memorial plaque to Liubov Panchenko was unveiled on the centre’s facade in the spring.
Nota bene
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