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On the anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Russia on the territory of Ukraine, the project "Defenders" was opened in the new exhibition space of the War Museum - about the brave, tenacious, persistent, strong, heroic and beautiful. We present photo portraits of Ukrainian soldiers who resist the total evil, defend their native land and protect the security of Europe and the world.
The photos were taken during the museum expedition, which took place in July 2022 with the support of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. General Director of the Museum Yuriy Savchuk and museum volunteer photographer from Sweden Andrzej Markiewicz made a trip to the locations of military units. Currently, the curator of the project Yuriy Savchuk shared how, being in the location of units on the territory of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, and Kyiv regions, museum workers photographed servicemen of various units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and recorded their memories.
The Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko emphasized that he is impressed by the efficiency of the Museum team, because we do not stop the exhibition work even for a moment, despite the fact that for almost a year Russia has been systematically destroying our peaceful life with rockets, bombs and mines. In the difficult conditions of war, our work did not go unnoticed. Mr. Minister congratulated the chief custodian of the funds, Oksana Yankovenko, with the title of "Honored Worker of Culture of Ukraine", and presented a significant number of museum specialists with official letters of gratitude from the Ministry.

Volodymyr Starokin, the lieutenant colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine present at the opening, who as a representative of the General Staff accompanied the museum workers on their journey of a thousand kilometers along the front line, emphasized that every soldier who defends our country is a Hero and we should know their faces. The "Defenders" exhibition allows you to look straight into their eyes.

This project brought together various people who care about the future of Ukraine. Words of thanks were addressed to the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Sweden in Ukraine, Mr. Tobias Tyberg, because we are grateful to the Swedes, first of all, to Andrzej Markiewicz, who took these impressive photos. The highest quality photo printing was done free of charge by Crimson, the best photo lab in Sweden and Europe. With the assistance of the Embassy of Ukraine in the Kingdom of Sweden, the precious cargo was immediately delivered to the Ukrainian city of Ternopil.

Our logistics partner - Nova Poshta - delivered the photo to the Museum in Kyiv in the shortest possible time, free of charge and highly professionally.

Therefore, the exposition is on display in the newly renovated space of the Exhibition Center of the Museum. In an incredibly short timeline, the Museum’s construction workers managed to renovate a new, modern event venue, created during the war and maximally equipped for uninterrupted functioning under such conditions. The location has permanent electricity flow due to the Ecoflow charging station provided by the NGO Museum for Change thanks to the constant support of Ukrainian museum workers by the Swiss ALIPH Foundation. Starlink from the "Ukraine - 21st Century" Foundation provides an autonomous access point to the global satellite system, and therefore we have powerful, high-speed Wi-Fi.

Thus we invite you to the first project in the new exhibition space.
The core of the exhibition is the sense of brotherhood - between all the power blocs of our country and museum workers, between relevant ministries, between the Ukrainian author of the idea and the Swedish volunteer photographer, between the War Museum and domestic and foreign partners, between the project team and all those who visited and still will visit the exhibition!