One Does Not Swear the Oath Twice

During the Revolution of Dignity more than 100 activists tragically died in bloody clashes on the Maidan. Three of them were from Kharkiv: V. Zubenko, Ye. Kotliar and Yu. Parashchuk.

Soon after the victory over V. Yanukovych’s regime the Russian Federation annexed Crimea and ignited the flames of war in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The beginning of the exhibition is a series of photographs from the Revolution of Dignity and a set of personal belongings of the Hero of Ukraine Yevhen Kotliar, including a helmet with a torch, a petrol hand warmer, a gas mask and a railway ticket for the Kharkiv–Kyiv train.

Visitors can also see the casing of a Teren-7M light-and-sound grenade, which was used against Maidan activists.

The main part of the exhibition area is devoted to the events connected with the Anti-Terrorist Operation.

A large body of photographs provided by Ukrainian soldiers, border guards and volunteers shows the course of the fighting, from the battles for Sloviansk to the battle of Debaltseve in the winter of 2015.

Larger original exhibits are presented as personal belongings of Ukrainian soldiers and remains of ammunition.

Several stand out, among them: the casing of an RPG-26 “Aglen” hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher brought from the area of Trokhizbenka in the Luhansk region; a set of personal belongings of Pavlo Petrovych Pylypchuk, a fighter of the General Kulchytskyi Battalion of the National Guard of Ukraine (a field cap, a belt, a scarf, a chest patch of a National Guard serviceman); shell fragments, including the remains of a rocket from the “Smerch” multiple rocket launcher; and a state flag of Ukraine sewn to order, signed by several hundred people — soldiers, volunteers and everyone who cares about Ukraine’s fate. It has a name of its own: “Little One”.

Next to it, in a display case, you can see a small Ukrainian flag with the inscription “128th Brigade Kalush–Debaltseve”. This little flag belonged to servicemen of the 128th Separate Mountain Infantry Brigade, which took an active part in the battles for the town of Debaltseve in the winter of 2015. The exhibition is adorned with samples of uniforms handed over to the Historical Museum by servicemen of the 92nd Separate Mechanised Brigade (Shchastia) and by fighters of the “Eastern Corps” Separate Special Purpose Company of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, who served in the Mariupol area in the winter of 2015.