Ukraine photo exhibit: Suffering and resistance in the Donbass

Huntington, N.Y. — “Ukraine: Behind the Red Line,” a photographic display of the war in Ukraine, documents the devastation of the lives of the people in the Donbass region as well as the organized resistance in Donbass to the junta regime in Kiev.

Armed men and women who make up the people’s militias supported by the people of East Ukraine are shown standing in defense of the residents of the cities and villages under siege by the U.S.-sponsored coup regime. The images provide graphic testimony to the suffering of people of the region who are living and dying under the bombs and military attacks of the neo-Nazi Kiev government.

The photos, taken by photojournalists in Russia and Ukraine, were prepared by Rossiya Segodnya, a multimedia international information agency and displayed here Aug. 22 at the Huntington Community Arts Center. The International Action Center and the United National Antiwar Coalition presented the exhibition.

The exhibit was a focus of intense discussion, The Community Arts Center has a long history of showing groundbreaking films and conducting discussions of critical political and social issues. Audiences are thoughtful and serious, and often consist of support movements for social justice.

One older woman stood near a photo of a mother in Donetsk saying goodbye to her daughter who was leaving for safety in Crimea. Shaking her head, the viewer says: “She looks like my daughter! She looks like me!”

An elderly man whose grandparents came from Kiev said: “I thought they tossed the Nazis out 70 years ago! Why is the U.S. supporting this regime?”

People walked slowly by the photographs and compared the scenes of destruction and the anguished faces to similar scenes from Gaza. Many asked questions because they thought the corporate U.S. media were hiding something: the truth.

A woman from Yugoslavia said: “These NATO wars started in Yugoslavia! Look at that grandmother hiding in her cellar amidst the canned vegetables! This is criminal! So sad! The U.S. is ­responsible!”

“These pictures,” said a woman from Guyana, “are beautiful and terrible. People need to see them and to understand what is happening.”

The exhibit will be traveling to New York City; Albany, N.Y.; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Los Angeles in the coming weeks. The New York meeting will be on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 6 p.m. at the Solidarity Center at 147 West 24th Street in Manhattan.