‘Unbroken Women’ tells the stories of three women arrested and held prisoner by Russian-controlled paramilitary groups in Eastern Ukraine. The women featured in the film were civilian volunteers and activists. While in captivity, they experienced torture and humiliation. Today, they continue to help veterans, former prisoners, internally displaced people and current hostages. They also testify in international courts on the question of war crimes committed in eastern Ukraine.

There are more than three thousand former prisoners of war in Ukraine who, like the three protagonists, are in need of medical and legal assistance from the state. The filmmakers’ aim was to reduce the stigma experienced by Ukrainian prisoners of war, to ensure that POWs are aware of their rights, and to build a support network for POWs among the general public and on the state level. The film was made and produced with the support of the ‘Sich’ Human Rights Protection Group, the New Media Advocacy Project (NYC), International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). 

The screening is organised by the KCL's Women in War and International Politics (WIWIP), Dr Olesya Khromeychuk (KCL History) and British Ukrainian Aid. 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv0D2aPVClc

Director: Olha Volynska

Run Time: 32 minutes.

Russian and Ukrainian with English subtitles.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion.

 

Speakers

Olha Volynska is a journalist, writer and documentary filmmaker. She has been working as a TV journalist for more than 10 years, highlighting corruption, human rights violations, ecological and social issues. Since 2017, Olha Volynska has also worked for the ‘Sich’ Human Rights Protection Group and the ‘Forpost’ NGOs, which support people who have suffered from the armed conflict in the Donbas and give them free legal and psychological assistance.

Iryna Dovgan is a well-known volunteer in Ukraine. At the start of the war in eastern Ukraine, she helped the Ukrainian army by delivering food, clothes and medical supplies to them. This served as the reason for her abduction in the summer of 2014. She underwent torture and humiliation. She was taken to a busy road in the city of Donetsk, forced to stand next to a pillar holding a sign which read ‘she is killing our children’ while she was humiliated by passers-by. A photo of this ordeal was taken by the Brazilian photographer Mauricio Lima; it appeared in The New York Times the next morning and saved Iryna Dovgan’s life. Following her release, Iryna Dovgan continues to help Ukrainian soldiers and former prisoners. Her testimony about her imprisonment has been included in reports for the European Parliament, the United Nations, the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court. 

Anna Iliushchenkova has a diploma in nursing. In 2014, she volunteered to serve in the war in eastern Ukraine. She was injured and captured by the Russian army. Following her release, Hanna Ilyushchenkova had to undergo lengthy treatment. As a result of the war, she lost her home and her job. She has devoted herself to helping the victims of war in Ukraine. 

Dr Olexandra Dovzhyk is coordinator of the London branch of the Save Oleg Sentsov global campaign. Since the annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, she has been raising awareness of the politically motivated persecutions and imprisonments of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars by the Russian Federation.

Moderator

Dr Olesya Khromeychuk teaches Modern European History at King’s College London and researches the participation and representation of women in military formations during the Second World War and in the ongoing conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine.