On February 20, marking 10 years since the official start of the annexation of the peninsula, the capital hosted a memorial evening for former political prisoner and serviceman Hennadii Afanasiev. It was on this day that human rights activists decided to tell the story of one of the brave Crimeans who defended Ukraine at the cost of his own freedom and life.

During the memorial evening, they read passages from Hennadii Afanasiev’s book “Rising After Falling”. The book contains Afanasiev’s memories of his time in a russian jail, where he was imprisoned on charges of preparing terrorist attacks. They also showed a previously unpublished video interview with Hennadii, recorded at the front. In it, he told about his impressions of being at war and admitted that he “had more faith in people”.

During the event, Hennadii’s mother, grandmother, and wife shared their memories, as well as Tamila Tasheva, representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Maryna Hrymych, writer, and Volodymyr Prytula, Head of the Krym.Realii project. In 2016-2018, Hennadii was the author of this project and published more than 80 columns, which he later collected into the book. Ihor Kotelianets, Head of the Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin, also attended the event.

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