November 20 marks 1,000 days since Russia invaded Ukraine. This war caused not only enormous damage to the population of Ukraine, but also to that part of the Ukrainian people who permanently reside in the Russian Federation.

For centuries, Ukrainians, oppressed by the dictatorship of landowners and tsarism, suffering from hunger and land shortage, left their places of residence in search of land and freedom. This is how huge Ukrainian colonies arose in Kuban, on the Lower Volga, in Siberia and the Far East. After the October Revolution, the socialist government pursued a policy of supporting national minorities and helped Ukrainians in Russia develop their own culture, their own language and their democratic traditions.

By the time the Soviet Union collapsed, more than 4 million Ukrainians lived in Russia, but by 2021 their number had decreased to 800 thousand due to assimilation and repression.

Since the late 2000s, the Ukrainian national cultural movement in the Russian Federation has faced systematic repression by state authorities. These repressions were aimed at suppressing the activity of Ukrainian public organizations, as well as limiting any forms of cultural expression and national identity of Ukrainians. After the outbreak of the war, the pressure on the Ukrainian movement reached a new peak. Of the more than thirty Ukrainian cultural autonomies and organizations that existed at the end of the 2010s, only a few continue to function actively. Most of them exist solely due to their complete loyalty to the state authorities.

In 2024, the Russian government initiated a bill to denounce the agreement with Ukraine that regulated the activities of information and cultural centers. This decision was the final blow to the National Cultural Center of Ukraine in Moscow - one of the last legal centers of Ukrainian culture in the Russian capital. Activists who tried to continue working to preserve Ukrainian culture and identity are under constant threat of detention, fines, or other repressive measures.

In these circumstances, ICOR member organizations demand during the single day of action on November 20:

Call on the Russian Federation:

To stop repressive measures against Ukrainian national-cultural autonomies and communities, and to cancel decisions to liquidate organizations whose activities were terminated on the basis of politically motivated charges.

To create conditions for the revival and development of Ukrainian culture by supporting and financing cultural events, educational programs aimed at studying the Ukrainian language, literature, music and folk traditions.

To ensure the right to self-identification and cultural expression of all national minorities, including Ukrainians, through the creation of cultural centers, theaters, museums, libraries and other institutions that promote the development of Ukrainian culture in regions of compact residence of the Ukrainian community.

Call on Ukraine:

To actively support Ukrainians living in the Russian Federation through assistance programs, the allocation of funds for Ukrainian political refugees and assistance in the creation of cultural projects aimed at preserving and developing Ukrainian national identity abroad. Ukraine should also provide legal, informational and diplomatic support to Ukrainian organizations under pressure.

Call on the European Union to:

Expand support programs for the Ukrainian diaspora in Russia that protect the rights of national minorities and create platforms for cultural dialogue that will help Ukrainians in Russia strengthen their national identity and support the development of Ukrainian culture under restrictions. EU states should also launch an international initiative to protect the cultural rights of Ukrainians in Russia at international venues such as the UN and the Council of Europe.