The texts for reading were based on the documentary play “Crimea, 5 am” by Ukrainian playwrights Natalia Vorozhbyt and Anastasia Kosodii. The event will take place on May 23, 2022, at 8 pm Kyiv time, at the Beletage Concert Center of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin. Staged reading will be in German; panel discussion in German and English.   

The brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine leads to an unimaginable scale of destruction, human suffering and displacement of the civilian population. Nevertheless, 24 February 2022 does not mark the beginning of the war, but a further escalation step in a long, bloody conflict that already began eight years ago with Russia's occupation of Crimea and destabilisation of eastern Ukraine. Even then, the course was set for the Putin regime's authoritarian, imperialist and anti-people policies, which were systematically implemented in the years that followed.

The staged reading "Ukraine, 5 a.m." followed by a panel discussion puts the two caesuras in context and reflects on the significance of the developments in Crimea for Ukrainian society and the war in the country as a whole.

The excerpts from the play "Crimea, 5 a.m." by the authors Natalia Vorozhbyt and Anastasia Kosodii illustrate the human rights situation and persecution especially of the Crimean Tatar people in Crimea under the Russian occupation regime. The picture is supplemented in a second part by current contributions from the war diary by the theatre dramaturge Pavlo Arie.

The panel discussion guests put the tragic, personal experiences and fates into the larger context of the threat to Ukrainian society.

• Was the current major war only the logical consequence of the intro in Crimea and the Donbas?

• How does the experience of violence change people and society?

• How can the experience of war be communicated to Europe and how can the solidarity of European civil society be preserved?

Welcome: Ellen Ueberschär, Executive Board, Heinrich Böll Foundation

Reading "Ukraine, 5 a.m.":

Actors from the German Theatre will read text excerpts and diary entries (translation into German by Lydia Nagel) under the artistic direction of Marina Schubarth. The first part of the reading will be accompanied musically and visualised live by the animation artist Sofiia Melnyk.

Readers include: Peter René Lüdicke, Linda Pöppel, Sarah Maria Sander, Birgit Unterweger, Niklas Wetzel, Kotbong Yang, Regine Zimmermann, Paul Riemann, Kati Thiemer

Music and Vocals: Diana Yanushkevych, piano; Oleg Yanushkevych, violine; Tetyana Nadolinska, Iryna Lazer, Katharina Goebel, vocals

Panel discussion: - Alim Aliev, Ukrainian Institute, Kyjv - Tetiana Pechonchyk, Zmina, Information Centre for Human Rights, Kyjv - Miriam Kosmehl, Bertelsmann Foundation, Berlin

Chair: Johannes Voswinkel, Heinrich Böll Foundation Ukraine, Kyjv/ Berlin

The project is a cooperation between Heinrich Böll Foundation, Ukrainian Institute, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Dokumentartheater Berlin and European Academy Berlin supported by YTC Dollmen.

Readings and discussion can be viewed online on the Heinrich Böll Foundation YouTube channel in German and English.