Participants of the NATO PA Spring Session will be shown the exhibition on the events in Kyiv, which is to be housed in the Memorial to the Victims of 13 January

The Memorial to the Victims of 13 January at the Seimas will open to the participants of the Spring Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to be held in Lithuania for the second time. On 30 May–1 June, the exposition will be supplemented with photos and children’s drawings illustrating the events in Kyiv in 2013–2014 and authentic items from Maidan. About 600 politicians and accompanying persons from more than 50 countries will have the opportunity to see the exhibition.

The exposition will be launched by Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Seimas, at 4 p.m. on Friday, 30 May.

Most photographs by Ukrainian photographer Nikita Zavilinsky show the faces of Maidan defenders and the moments from the fight of Ukrainians for freedom. The photographs were presented to the Lithuanian public in March in the framework of the event held by the Museum of Genocide Victims to show support for Ukraine. The events in Kyiv’s Independence Square are also depicted in striking photographs by Andrew Meakovski and Vlad Sodel.

With the assistance of the Embassy of Lithuania to Ukraine, authentic items that the Ukrainian nation considers as relics of the fight for freedom have been brought for a temporary exposition from Kyiv’s Independence Square to Vilnius’ Independence Square. The exhibits include a dead person’s helmet shattered by a bullet, shields of Maidan defenders, paving stones, and the European flag.

The exhibition in the Memorial to the Victims of 13 January is supplemented with an exposition of drawings Glory to the Heroes by pupils, led by teacher Vytas Aputis, from Kazys Grinius Gymnasium in Kazlų Rūda. A part of this exposition is displayed in the Embassy of Ukraine in Lithuania. The exhibition also includes paintings by the pupils, participants in the 2011 national competition to commemorate the Day of the Defenders of Freedom. The authors of the paintings are pupils from Pilaitė Secondary School in Vilnius, Art School in Panevėžys and Antanas Baranauskas Secondary School in Anykščiai.

During the Spring Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the Memorial of 13 January will also be open to the public. Visitors will also have an opportunity to see this special exposition on Saturday, 14 June—the Day of Mourning and Hope. Visitors will be greeted by the defenders of the Supreme Council – Reconstituent Seimas who will be on duty in the Memorial to the Victims of 13 January.

The situation in Ukraine is high on the agenda of the Spring Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Artūras Zeleniakas, Public Relations Unit, Communications Department, Office of the Seimas,

tel. +370 5 239 6201, e-mail: [email protected]