“We, people at liberty, have no right to throw in the towel”. “Hold On! I am Holding On!” event: poetry written in captivity and poetry about captivity was read at the Book Arsenal festival

On 31 May, a special event entitled “Hold On! I am Holding On!” – reading poetry written in captivity and poetry about captivity – was held as part of the XII Book Arsenal festival under this year’s key topic “Life on the Edge”. The Center for Civil Liberties and Kateryna Osadcha’s Foundation became the organisers of this event.

Thousands of Ukrainians are now detained in Russia and in the temporarily occupied territories. The aggressor state grossly violates all international conventions. Both civilians and military personnel are being tortured in attempts to break their will to live and their faith in Ukraine. However, they are holding on.

“Hold On! I am Holding On!” is a unique opportunity to hear the words of prisoners they wrote in captivity. These are their letters to their loved ones, friends and all of us. Famous Ukrainian actors became their voices at the event, as they read their messages, unable to hold back tears. These were Akhtem Seitablaiev, Kateryna Vyshneva and Roman Yasinovskyi, as well as human rights defender and Head of the Center for Civil Liberties Oleksandra Matviichuk. In particular, they voiced the words of Serhii Tsyhipa, the founder of the Tavria Games, Nariman Dzhelialov, Deputy Chair of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, and Andrii Holubiev, a coach from Melitopol.

Also, the Ukrainian writers read their own poetry dedicated to the topic of captivity and to Ukrainians held there. These were, in particular, Serhii Zhadan Tetiana Vlasova, Tonia Kornuta, Natalka Heiman, Yuliia Musakovska, Anna Malihon, Maryna Ponomarenko and Oksana Stomina, whose husband is still held in captivity. Kateryna Osadcha, a Ukrainian journalist and TV presenter, moderated the event. The author of the artwork that inspired the project’s poster was Serhii Ofitserov, a resident of Kherson who was caught in his parents’ apartment and is now being held in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention centre on false terrorism charges.

“In Russia, civilians are now held in SIZO pre-trial detention centres, in torture chambers and in calabooses. These people were detained in territories that are not controlled by the Ukrainian government for their pro-Ukrainian views because they did not give up, because they did not break during torture and because they remained Ukrainians. Various estimates show that there are between 7,000 and 20,000 of such Ukrainians. These people have no chance of being part of a prisoner exchange. It is because according to the Geneva Conventions, civilians must not be detained.

No captivity for civilians can exist under any legal provision. That is why we, together with the Center for Civil Liberties and my Foundation, demand that all the civilians be returned unconditionally and without exchanges. And this event was held to raise awareness not only of you, not only of Ukrainians, who know very well how terrible the war is, how terrible the trouble we are facing on our land is, but also of the world. It is the world that should exert pressure on Russia and recognize what is happening and the fact that absolutely all Geneva Conventions are being violated. They does not work.

Civilians are being tortured, they do not enjoy proper treatment and cannot exchange letters with their relatives. We have had no news about most of them for the past two years. We have no idea where they stay as they are being moved and transported from place to place. We have testimonies of labour slavery when they are forced to work. All this just can’t happen in the 21st century”, Kateryna Osadcha emphasizes.

Oleksandra Matviichuk was one of the first to deal with the issue of the civilians held in Russian prisons. In the past, she documented the story of pastor Oleksandr Khomchenko, a Donetsk clergyman who suffered torture. Oleksandra read a recorded excerpt from the man’s story in front of thousands of festival guests:

“They hung me up on a hook and put a gas mask on me. They clamped the hole at the end of the tube and blocked the air flow so I couldn’t breathe. When I was unconscious, they opened the hole and covered it with a cloth soaked in ethanol. I breathed in deeply since I was on the brink of losing consciousness, and I felt a fire in my chest. I was coughing and choking. And then again they were hitting my chest and back with batons, and it happened again and again.”

Russia is holding many thousands of prisoners of war in appalling inhumane conditions, as well as many thousands of civilians whom it had absolutely no right to detain under international law. Therefore, it must release them immediately, unconditionally and beyond any exchanges. For 10 years now, we have been documenting the testimonies of people who survived captivity and who told us how they had been tortured. They tell us about sexual abuse, about the failure to provide medical care and how people were dying in cells, and they could do nothing.

Certainly, we are aware that Russia grossly violates every right and guarantee enshrined in the Geneva Conventions. We, human rights defenders, lack any legal tools we could have relied on to release these people. However, it does not mean we should sit around doing nothing. People fight for their survival in captivity. If they are capable of that, then we, people at liberty, have absolutely no right to throw in the towel and say that it is difficult for us, that we do not know how and that we cannot release them”, Oleksandra spoke with confidence.

The Center for Civil Liberties, other human rights defenders, concerned citizens, members of civil society organizations, activists and the relatives of prisoners of war and imprisoned civilians ask all the Ukrainians to sign a petition. It is intended to ensure that the Ukrainians who ended up in captivity due to Russian aggression have the right to correspondence.

The event “Hold On! I am Holding On!”: Poetry Written in Captivity and Poetry about Captivity” was held as part of the Enhance Non-Governmental Actors and Grassroots Engagement (ENGAGE) activity funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Pact Ukraine. The Book Arsenal festival is an international event organised by Mystetskyi Arsenal. This festival has been held since 2011 and has become one of Eastern Europe’s most influential literary and artistic events.

Photo: Danylo Yevmenchuk