Forum on Ukraine repression and resistance

Berkeley, Calif. — As part of an international tour of a photo-documentary chronicle of the war in Ukraine and the suffering of people whose lives it has touched, about 40 people gathered in the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall to view powerful photos of peaceful civilians and forced refugees. The presentation included a slideshow narrated by Bill Bowers of the International Action Center.

The program was sponsored by the Social Justice Committee of the BFUU, the IAC and the United National Anti-War Coalition. The photos were prepared by multimedia, international information agency Rossiya Segodnya photojournalists in Russia and Ukraine.

In the press release for the exhibit’s opening in New York City, International Action Center activist Greg Butterfield stated: “As Washington and NATO continue to engage in provocative Cold War rhetoric falsely blaming Russia for the civil war in Ukraine, this exhibit provides a timely antidote to the myths spread by major U.S. media.”

“U.S. officials have portrayed the coup regime that came to power in Kiev, Ukraine, early this year as a beacon of democracy. These photos document a very different reality,” asserted Butterfield. “War crimes are being committed daily by the Kiev government against its own citizens, with funding and political support from Washington. People in the Donbass region and throughout Ukraine are resisting a far-right regime dedicated to austerity and NATO expansion to Russia’s border, a regime which includes openly pro-Nazi elements.”

“Before we are dragged into a dangerous confrontation with Russia, poor and working people in the U.S. need to understand what our taxes are really paying for in Ukraine,” concluded Sara Flounders.

The exhibit’s next stop is outside of Ottawa, Canada. View the slideshow and find fact sheets about the anti-fascist struggle for independence in Ukraine at no2nato.org.