War Stories. Ukraine Up Close: Netherlands Hosts the First Major Exhibition on Russia’s War in Ukraine
The National Military Museum in the Netherlands is hosting the first large-scale exhibition on the Russian war in Ukraine, `War Stories. Ukraine Up Close’. The walls feature stunning photographs by Dutch photographer Eddie van Wessel, taken after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. They show pain, suffering, death and the Ukrainian people's will to live.
The exhibition shows the chronology of events from the Revolution of Dignity to the full-scale Russian invasion. Ukrainians and the Dutch worked together on this powerful exhibition.
It features artefacts from the National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity and videos by filmmakers from Ukraine and the Netherlands. They tell the stories of Ukrainians whose peaceful lives turned into a struggle for freedom and independence.
Dutch photographer Eddie van Wessel has seen and documented the war in Chechnya, Iraq, Syria, and now Ukraine. A few hours before the official opening of the exhibition, the documentary photographer took an Ukrinform correspondent through the halls of the museum and told him what he saw during the war in Ukraine.
‘We have about 70 images. Some of them are five or even six metres wide and are the largest. We can tell a really wide audience about what is happening in Ukraine, because many people visit this museum every year. I will also open an exhibition in Slovenia in a month,’ says the author of the photo.
The Dutch photographer says that it is very important for him to convey what he has seen in Ukraine to convince people that this war is very close, and that Russian aggression is a threat to the whole world.
The Russian invasion forced ordinary people to become paramedics, volunteers, and soldiers. They went through captivity, losses, and difficult rehabilitation after being wounded. But, despite everything, they survived and told their stories.
Some of them took part in the official opening ceremony and, together with the museum's management, the Dutch Minister of Defence, and the Ambassador of Ukraine to the Netherlands, spoke about the painful issues and called for continued support for Ukraine. Among those present were also Ukrainian and Dutch volunteers who are actively helping Ukraine.
