Lithuanian singer and songwriter Monika Liu, who represented her country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, voices the story of the destroyed city of Mariupol.
In the spring of 2022, because of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine the name of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol flew around the world. However, prior to this devastating invasion, Mariupol had a completely different appearance as well as a rich and ancient history. ‘The city of Mary’ was founded by the Ukrainian Cossack in the 16th century. Later during the years of Ukraine’s independence, it has turned into the national metallurgical capital. Mariupol has been beseiged by Russian Forces since their full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and has captured the worlds attention as they remained resilient in the face of merciless war crimes.
Mariupol has suffered catastrophic destruction: Russian Forces killed tens of thousands of civilians in the city, and not a single building has remained intact. In the second half of May, the last remaining Ukrainian Forces of Mariupol, trapped in the Azovstal Plant, surrendered as Prisoners of War, under orders, for their own safety, from the Ukrainian command. Since then, the city has been under Russian occupation and Mariupol has become a global symbol of war crimes against Ukrainians and Ukrainian cultural heritage.
«Postcards from Ukraine» is a project of the Ukrainian Institute that shares the stories of the destroyed cultural and historical sites of Ukraine. With USAID support, a single database was created containing information about 100 monuments and allowing the world to see the scale of damage and read the history of each in Ukrainian and English.
The project team calls on everyone to share the story of the destruction of Ukrainian culture, distribute the postcards on social networks and send them to friends abroad so that the world learns the truth about Russia's intentional devastation of the cultural heritage of Ukraine. Use a hashtag #PostcardsFromUkraine.
