Volodymyr and Radislav Mykhaylov are Roma from the Chernihiv Oblast to the northeast of Kyiv. Volodymyr sings at charity concerts while Radislav fights in the Ukrainian forces. Radislav came back from abroad to enroll in the army.
Weird news from Transcarpathian Ukraine, where the police stopped a car with 12 Roma in it, some in the car’s trunk. It seems the driver also had some false papers.
Eleonora Kulchar is an Ukrainian Romni who fascinates and fascinates with her desire to help everyone. She heads the “Blago” charitable foundation and is the national coordinator of the REYN-Ukraine network project, which deals with the early development of Roma children.
In her every word, you can feel how sincerely she is working for her cause and Ukraine. In half an hour, while we were talking, she was called several times, someone came to ask something important, and someone just to say hello.
And even while working in non-stop mode, she continues to radiate a huge force that can literally be felt in the air: “I know what I have to do. I ask God for help and I feel how he fills every cell of my body with strength.
Now Mrs. Eleonora is in charge of the first and so far the only shelter for Roma. About its everyday life, problems and residents – in our material.
In the occupied region of Makiivka, a family of 8 Roma was shot. The youngest victim, shot in the head, was a year old. Apparently, they were shot by Wagner Mercenaries who wanted to steal a car. Three of them have apparently been arrested.
The Sykhiv District Court of Lviv sentenced one of the perpetrators who, together with accomplices, attacked a Roma camp in 2018. The attack occurred in June 2018 when seven people attacked the Roma camp, which was located in a forest strip on the outskirts of Lviv. As a result of the attack, one person died, and four others were injured. The attackers prepared the attack in advance. They bought masks and armed themselves with knives, metal pipes, wooden sticks, chains and hammers.
The man was found guilty of hooliganism and sentenced to 5 years in prison. However, he was released from serving a probationary sentence, having been placed on probation for 2 years.
Really? For premeditated murder?
Another case of Ukraine’s border police stopping military age men from crossing the border illegally. The article mentions quite a few men doing that, but the onus is unfortunately on Roma – of which from 17, on 3 were men. Bad and not exactly nice to Roma.
A large group of war refugees cannot be accommodated in the reception desk at the railway station in Przemyśl in Eastern Poland, and the time of stay, at the Humanitarian Aid Centre limited to 48 hours, is too short for them to find another place of accommodation or decide on their further journey. The problem mainly affects the Roma. Only people with a valid train ticket can enter the accommodation at the reception desk at the PKP railway station in Przemyśl. This was criticised by the Ombudsman.
This time in the Slovak Press, an article that cites the same sources as the Ukrainians regarding the execution of 28 Roma in Ukraine’s occupied territories by Russian troop.
Bad.
In the occupied Ukrainian territory, the Russian military shot 28 Roma for poisoning a company of Russian soldiers with vodka. This was stated in an intercepted conversation of one of the Russian soldiers and was reported by the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of the Ukraine.
A Russian soldier tells his wife about the lawlessness that is taking place in the territories occupied by Russia.
“Do you know what chaos is happening in the cities here? The military police recently shot 28 gypsies, put them against the wall and shot them because they gave vodka to our military and poisoned them, the whole company,” the Russian says in a conversation. The military of the Russian Federation adds that there were 96 people in the company, and now there are less than fifty left.
A telephone conversation of a Russian soldier in the Donbas was intercepted by the Ukrainians. Apparently, Russians shot 28 Roma for having “poisoned” them with Vodka.
Another war crime.
This is not good in any way: Articles in the Ukrainian press about Roma being arrested while trying to cross the border illegally to Hungary. In each of the cases at hand, this concerned young men or even conscripts. This is bad as it gives the impression that Roma are not pro-Ukrainian, which is far from the reality, and even in one case, that they help people fleeing conscription.
The Church World Service is launching a program aimed at helping Roma refugees from the Ukraine in Moldova.
An article in the German press on Roma in the Ukraine. As usual, the focus lies on Transcarpathia and, together with Bessarabia, represent an exception regarding to the situation of Roma in the Ukraine. In those two regions, the situation is really bad, with ghettoes and unemployment. But in places where the majority of Roma are Xaladytka and Servi, the situation is very different.
This is almost never presented in the press.
The story of several Roma from Svalyava, in Transcarpathian Ukraine who volunteered in the Ukrainian Army in the fight against Russia. The oldest among them is Mykhailo Tytychko, alias Baron. He got this nickname for his considerable authority in the Roma community. He is the only one of the volunteers who had military service experience.
Baron shares that at first the other guys in their unit were wary. A certain tension was felt. Later, Mykhailo himself found out in a conversation with his brothers that there were certain fears. They lived in constant tension and fear that something would be stolen from them – they themselves admitted to me a month later. But this mistrust passed very quickly – as soon as the boys took a good look at us, we became so close that we became like a family.
My name is Panchenko Oleksii Mykhailovych. I lived all my life in the Zaporizhia region, in the city of Kamianka-Dniprovska. I have lived in my parents’ house all my life. I am married and have two children: the first daughter Angela, then the boy David and the youngest Tatyanochka. Before the war, I was a truck driver, worked at the wheel for six years, often visited abroad.
I found out about the beginning of the war right away… because right next to us there were Russian troops, about 6 km from my house. From February 24 to April 8, there was no way I could leave the city to take my family to a safe place. Periodically there was heavy shelling, and sometimes we were not allowed out of the city at all. At one point, my wife and I packed our things and our children and decided to try to leave at our own peril and risk. This time we succeeded. We arrived on the Ukrainian controlled territory.
On the morning of April 15, I came to the Military Commissariat, whose employees were all very shocked “that a Roma is eager to serve.” I passed the medical examination in three days, I haven’t told my wife anything on this topic yet. Only on April 20 did my wife find out that I was already in the military.
An employee of the Secretariat of the Human Rights Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine carried out a planned monitoring visit to the site of a compact Roma settlement, located on Pershotravneva and Radyanska Streets in the village of Ozerna, Safyanivska Rural Territorial Community, Izmail District, Odesa Region, in order to verify the observance of the rights and freedoms of representatives of the Roma national minorities under martial law.
During the visit, it was found out that residential buildings of representatives of the Roma national minority were at risk of collapsing into Lake Yalpug. Due to landslides, the coastline is decreasing. Today, the distance from the cliff to the nearest yard is less than five meters.
It has also been established that only eight of the sixteen houses are inhabited. They need to be resettled urgently. Another issue is the strengthening of the coastline to avoid further erosion of the coast.
Taking into account the above facts and circumstances, the situation requires the state authorities and local self-government bodies to implement a policy aimed at solving problematic issues. In particular, this is a solution to the issue of coastal fortification, provision of water supply and other communications, as well as the inclusion of these issues in the strategic development plan of the community where the Roma settlement is located.
Let’s see what effectively happens … Probably all Roma will be resettled, but not provided with new houses …
The twenty-nine-year-old Rom Vasil Medvědenko, together with his brother, volunteered for the Ukrainian army after seeing the footage of the massacre in Bucha. He decided to defend his homeland. At first Vasil could not believe the news about the Russian invasion, but after a few days he was sure that it was really a war. “I realized that this is a big problem for my country, where I grew up and raised my children. At first I thought that it wouldn’t last long, maybe a month, maybe it would end sooner, but when I saw the news about Bucha, I realized that it would be for a long time. It was the terrible events in Bucha that forced me to act – to voluntarily defend my native country,” he told RomaUA, a Ukrainian Roma information site that reported his story.
At the North Elementary School “Am Reitbahnsee” in Neubrandenburg in North Eastern Germany, two preparatory classes with Ukrainian students are treated differently: While some are taught in the school building, a two-room apartment was rented for around 20 children – three kilometres away from the school. They belong to the Roma minority. This way they have no contact with other students. In addition, the apartment has safety deficiencies. Those responsible deny the allegations of discrimination.
Bad.
Hardly anyone knows the stories of the Roma who were persecuted by the National Socialists in Ukraine. The survivors still experience discrimination – and suffer particularly from Putin’s war.
Ukrainian Roma are taking legal action after an attack of Roma refugees in Chisinau. The Roma refugees were sprayed with tear gas by security personnel. They complained to the EU Council on Preventing and Eliminating Discrimination and Ensuring Equality. A criminal complaint against the assailants has also been initiated ex officio by the public prosecutor. The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) will represent the Romani litigants in both proceedings.
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