Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday hailed Ukraine's first Oscar, awarded to a documentary about Russia's assault on the city of Mariupol, saying it showed “the truth about Russian terrorism.”
The film – “20 Days in Mariupol” – won the Best Documentary Oscar at a ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday night, March 10.
Directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov, it depicts intense fighting and near-constant Russian aerial bombardment from inside the southern port city of Mariupol in the first days after Russia invaded in 2022.
“Russia brutally attacked Mariupol over two years ago. The film ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ depicts the truth about Russian terrorism,” Zelensky said.
The Kremlin declined to comment earlier on Monday when asked about the film's success.
Zelensky thanked the team behind the production, and said it allowed Kyiv “to speak out loudly about Russia's war against Ukraine.”
He also demanded the release of Ukrainian fighters that Russia captured at the Azovstal plant in the city. Dozens of Ukrainian troops had holed up at the vast steelworks in an attempt to stop Russia from completing its seizure of Mariupol.
The city, on the Sea of Azov, was almost completely destroyed by Russian attacks and Kyiv says tens of thousands of civilians were killed.
The film had already picked up a string of other international accolades, including a Pulitzer Prize and a Bafta.
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Success at the world's most prestigious film awards prompted a flood of tributes and emotion across Ukrainian social media.
“A historic and sad event at the same time. Thank you to the makers of this appalling film,” pro-Western opposition lawmaker Iryna Gerashchenko said on Facebook.
Accepting the award on Sunday, director Chernov said: “Probably I will be the first director on this stage to say – I wish I'd never made this film.”
The award comes with the Ukrainian army struggling on the front lines and vital Western aid wavering.
A $60 billion aid package in the United States, Kyiv's most important military backer, is being held up by political wrangling in Congress.
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Comments (2)
There is already such an incredible amount of documentation on the putin regimes' crimes in Ukraine. It is freely available and so easy to access. It's is captured and uploaded by the public, and the institutes of society across the globe. Its' all stored digitally and redundantly on myriads of cloud servers safely spread across the globe. Digital storage is incredibly cheap, and this content will be referenced and thus monetized for eons. It cannot be purged by this war's winner or loser, nor in absence of an earth ending meteor strike, ever destroyed.
This is a very different data acquisition and storage scenario than in WWI or WWII, yet even some of those war instigator's crimes are referenced to this day.
There is only one path for Russian's to dissociate from the eternal pariah state status putin has burdened their nation with. That is for the russian people themselves to take out this home grown villanous regime. A complete internal purge of the leadership instigators and also propagators of these well documented crimes.
At least then some doubt will remain as to whether all russians were complicit in putin's war crimes, or whether it was only those associated in some nefarious way with putins evil regime.
I am being held hostage in America and am close friends with President Zelensky. My name is Queen Danielle Ohlhues. Last time we met was in Florida and previously Baltimore, Md. I use to attend World Network meeting and events with him as well. His contact details were illegally removed from my cell phone and other foreign officials and dignitaries that I had personal relationships with also. I need to speak with him and it is urgent , I also have an open litigation suit against Quicken Loans/ Dan Gilbert that I need his assistance with regarding a 16 Billion relief of settlement from no response towards summons/ complaint/ counter suit. I will be providing him a portion of this settlement. Please have him reach out to me regarding my situation 321-436-0417. 451 Wellesly St. Oviedo, FL 32765. *** Reach out to Gorbi as well. Thank you, Danielle Ohlhues- Kelly
** Please take this seriously as I really an being held hostage / cyberly and through other attacks.