At the Berlinale, they called for the release of Maksym Butkevich from Russian captivity
[ad_1]
At the Berlin Film Festival, which is ongoing in the capital of Germany, representatives of the Ukrainian film industry called on the international cultural community to demand the release of human rights defender and journalist Maksym Butkevich from Russian captivity. This was announced on social media by the Docudays UA film festival, which Butkevich was often the host and moderator of. The participants of the action came to the Berlinale Palace wearing identical t-shirts with the image of the human rights defender, as well as the inscription #freeMaksymButkevych. “At the beginning of March 2022, Maksym Butkevich suspended his activities in assisting refugees, journalistic, humanitarian, educational and human rights activities, and joined the ranks of the Armed Forces. In the summer, during military operations near the captured settlements of Zolote and Hirske in the Luhansk region, Maksym was captured by the occupiers. Since June 2022, we have not known anything about the whereabouts of our friend and colleague…” – Docudays UA added. The founder of Public Radio, journalist and human rights defender Maksym Butkevich joined the ranks of defenders of Ukraine after the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation in early March. It became known in July 2022 that Butkevich was captured by the Russians in the area of Zolote and Girske settlements in the Luhansk region. At the time, it was reported that Butkevich had been in captivity since at least June 24, because on that day Russian propagandists published a video of the Ukrainian journalist’s interrogation. In mid-July, public figures, media persons, and politicians supported a flash mob calling for the immediate release of Butkevich on social networks. They accompanied their posts with the hashtag #FreeMaksymButkevych. Then the executive director of the European Endowment for Democracy (EED) Jerzy Pomjanovsky and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Lipavsky also joined the flash mob. Well-known Ukrainian #humanrights defender, journalist, and a friend of Czechia Maksym Butkevych is being unlawfully held captive by Russia. Like many others, he started defending his country this spring. Release Maksym and all Ukrainian prisoners. #StandWithUkraine — Jan Lipavský (@JanLipavsky) July 11, 2022 In August 2022, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation admitted that it had been holding Butkevich captive for two months. They confirmed there that the Ukrainian human rights defender is in the territory of the self-proclaimed “LPR”. Read also: “At an early stage”. Matt Damon said that he is thinking of making a film about Ukraine
[ad_2]
Original Source Link
