Tag Archives: War

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Ukraine, Roma, and the War

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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.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Ukraine: Interview with a Soldier

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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.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Roma at War

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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.

Moldova News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Moldova and Ukrainian Roma Refugees

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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.

News Eastern Europe Poland Ukraine

OSCE Conference and Ukraine

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During the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference organised by the OSCE, the plight of Ukrainian Roma both inside and outside of the country was thematised. Ukrainian Roma NOGs attended the conference, most notably the Chirikli Romnja NGO.

  • Monitoring and addressing the human rights challenges faced by Roma fleeing Ukraine discussed at ODIHR event. In: OSCE. 03.10.2022. https://www.osce.org/odihr/527619
Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Ukraine

Germany and Ukrainian Roma

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The German State of Baden-Wuerttemberg supports the integration of Roma displaced from the Ukraine. All offers for refugees should also be available to members of the Roma minority and other Romani-speaking people.

Apart from the fact that few non-Roma speak Romanes (they probably wanted to include Sinti), this is welcome.

Moldova News Eastern Europe Romania Ukraine

Ukrainian Roma Refugees

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Testimonies from Ukrainian Roma refugees in Europe. The article focuses on Moldova and Romania. What is good, is that this is being reported in the Ukrainian press, which usually tends only to report on stealing and begging Roma. Hope this will continue.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Ukraine Roma

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An article in Spanish on the situation of Roma in the Ukraine. It is based on the visit of the Sinto MEP Romeo Franz in the Ukraine. “The situation of Roma in Ukraine is unbearable, I couldn’t believe that Roma live in such conditions in Europe,” said German Roma MEP Romeo Franz, one of the participants in the delegation that visited Ukraine, at a press conference. It is possible that soe of the Roma IDPs will suffer hunger this winter in the Ukraine.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Interview

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A group of Roma soldiers has been serving on the war front line in Ukraine for two weeks now. They are all from one city, but now, like other Roma in Ukraine, they have volunteered to defend their homeland from a barbaric attack by the Russian army. “We get up at four or five in the morning, as needed. There are days when we don’t sleep at all,” says a Romani soldier from the Ukrainian army in an exclusive interview with ROMEA TV.

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