Russia recently revealed its involvement in the abduction of 700,000 Ukrainian children. The forcible transfer of children from one ethnic group to another is considered genocide under Article 2 of the Genocide Convention.
These children’s fate is often unknown, with some being forcibly adopted into Russian families, without the ability to contact their parents. Their documents and identity are stripped of them, and the children are given new names. They are taught to fear and hate their homeland, and some are forced to join the Russian military’s war against Ukraine.
On August 24th at the Daley Plaza I pasted an Inside Out project called “Russia Kidnaps Ukrainian Children Like me” with a group of volunteers. I photographed Ukrainian children living in Chicago to bring attention to the thousands of Ukrainian children that have been kidnapped by Russia since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Pasting portraits:
The sign about the project:
Interviews for inside out:
Installation:
Reactions:
Art Direction by Mila Ugryn
Copy editing (for sign) by Sofia Solimando
Photography by Mila Ugryn, Stas Dmytriv, Tonya Dmytriv, Yaryna Skrypets and other volunteers.