BEZRUKY, KHARKIV OBLAST, Dec 18 – Ukrainian artists Serhiy Zhadan, Pavlo Korobchuk and Zoryana Byndas visited a village 18 km (11,2 mi) from the state border with Russia. The authors read their poems and brought Ukrainian-language books to the local library.
“Everyone needs a situation of normality. The feeling that life goes on. That despite this war, this terrible bloody war, we are still human beings. We still have our country and we want to live in it. It seems to me that this is something that everyone lacks today: adults and children alike. That’s why, since the beginning of this full-scale war, we have been trying to work with children and communicate with them. To read something for them, to sing, because they are especially vulnerable. We need to work with them, talk to them and be together. That’s what we do,” says writer Serhiy Zhadan to Gwara Media.
He adds that the biggest problem today is the frontline and helping the military. Still, it is also crucial not to ignore education, which has been sad for several years, even without the war.
The event took place in an innovative children’s room in the shelter of a local lyceum. It was opened in September 2023 with the support of the Derhachi Military Administration and CodeIT for Life benefactors.
The writers went to other communities in the Kharkiv Oblast and plan to visit Derhachi, Khroly, Balakliia, Izyum, Pechenihy, Malynivka, and Chuhuiv in three days. Books with contemporary Ukrainian literature and world bestsellers from Ukrainian publishers are being brought to each village and town.
Bezruky is a village in the Derhachi community of Kharkiv Oblast, 25 kilometres north from Kharkiv. Along with Prudianka and Slatyne, the Ukrainian Armed Forces liberated the village from Russian occupation on April 23, 2022. In the first days of the full-scale war, Russian equipment was moving through Bezruky.
Serhii Zhadan is an internationally known Ukrainian writer, with 12 books of poetry and 7 novels. His literary works have received numerous national and international awards; have been translated into many languages, which made him one of the most renowned Ukrainian writers. Furthermore, Serhiy Zhadan is an active contributor to literary life in Ukraine and a participant of synthetic art projects.
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