As Ukraine prepares to celebrate Victory Day on May 9, several social advertising videos were released and quickly went viral.
The videos came as a response to Russian media propaganda denigrating Ukraine’s role in defeating Nazi Germany and accusing many in the nation of sympathizing with Adolf Hitler.
One of the ads, released by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance on April 30, features the story of 97-year-old World War II veteran Ivan Zaluzhniy from Zaporizhia. In the video he says that he would like to celebrate Victory Day with his grandson, Ivan Gutnyk-Zaluzhniy, a National Guard battalion commander.
But it will never happen.
His grandson was killed in the war in eastern Ukraine in August 2014. The 23-year-old man was slain by combined Russia-separatist forces near Amvrosiivka in Donetsk Oblast.
Ukrainian Victory Day social ad “Eternal Gory to the Heroes” in Russian without English subtitles.
“My grandson used to say that he will be defending (his land) like his grandfather,” Zaluzhniy says in the video. “He said, ‘I am ready to give my life for the freedom of my Ukraine’.”
The sorrowful video titled “Eternal Gory to the Heroes” was recorded and produced by Ukrainian director Oles Sanin, the winner of the 2004 Oleksander Dovzhenko Ukrainian State Award for the movie “Mamai” (2003).
YouTube users appreciated the video.
“In 1945, this veteran probably couldn’t imagine that his grandson would be killed defending his land from the people who called themselves his brothers,” Natalia Nikitina commented under the video.
Watch more about Zaluzhniy in the interview to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.
Earlier, a Ukrainian nongovernmental organization, Information Resistance, released two social ads, “Grandfather” and “Grandmother.”
In “Grandfather,” a young Ukrainian soldier calls his veteran grandfather with Victory Day congratulations. After a short and touching talk, the soldier goes into battle. In the end, a slogan shows up: “We remember, we are proud, we will win.”
Ukrainian Victory Day social ad “Grandfather” with English subtitles.
In the second video, “Grandmother,” a nurse from a war hospital gives a similar call to her veteran grandmother.
Actors Nina Antonova and Volodymyr Talashko, who played the roles of grandmother and grandfather, are known for their acting parts in Soviet war movies.
Ukrainian Victory Day social ad “Grandmother” with English subtitles.
The ads were produced by Tabasco advertising company and Lime Lite Studio and directed by Israeli director Eli Sverdlov. The two videos gained 1 million views in just first two days since their release date on April 27.
Normally, a production of two such videos would cost more than $2 million, according to Volodymyr Yatsenko, the general producer of Lime Lite Studio. But a filming crew of 60 people agreed to work for free to make the videos.
Kyiv Post staff writer Yuliana Romanyshyn can be reached at [email protected].
