Patrick Le Tréhondat
Canal 5 television channel, reputed to be close to former President Petro Poroshenko, decided to support the Ukrainian armed forces by publishing a calendar… with photos of naked female journalists armed with weapons for the purchase walkie-talkies for the army. Hanka Kudryavtseva, head of Channel 5, justified the calendar by explaining that "the guys on the front line love it", which caused an uproar in the Ukrainian women's movement and on social networks. In a statement, 19 associations then declared "We, representatives of women's associations, human rights defenders and the media, categorically condemn this method of collecting money for the needs of the army and consider this initiative to be discriminatory representations and sexists opposes the work done by the media and civil society to ensure that women in Ukraine, including military personnel, are not seen as sexual objects”. Among the signatories, the head of the Association of Women Lawyers of Ukraine YurFem, Khrystyna Kit and the co-founder of the Veterans Women's Movement, Kateryna Primak. For its part, the feminist group Bilkis also protested: “Do you really think that during this war where the rape of women and children is used as weapons, and where domestic violence increases, such calendar is appropriate? We fully support the statement of condemnation and sincerely hope that the authorities will respond to it and that Channel 5 will stop the distribution of a calendar that supports a culture of woman as object and gender-based violence. »