“The prison will not grow up to heaven”: patriotic stickers appeared in occupied Donetsk

Recently, in Donetsk, which is occupied by Russian troops, there were inscriptions with quotations of Vasyl Stus’s works and depictions of fragments of his bas-relief, which militants of the “DPR” group dismantled from the building of the Donetsk University in 2015, – reports Radio Donbass.Realii

Mysteriously, stickers spread throughout the city center.

Underground passage to Prospekt Ilyicha:

Artema Street:

Donbas Palace Hotel:

Regional Traumatology Hospital: 

Krupskaya library:

Prospekt Mira bus stop:

Serhiy Bubka monument:

The bas-relief of Ukrainian human rights activist, poet and political prisoner Vasyl Stus was dismantled at the building of the Philological Faculty of the Donetsk National University after the  occupation by the Russian hybrid forces in May 2015. Earlier, the issue of the demolition of this bas-relief was discussed at the so-called session of the parliament of the DPR. Fake parliamentarians wanted to replace it with the portrait sculpture of the intelligence officer Mykola Kuznetsov.

Ukrainian poet and human rights activist Vasyl Stus (1938-1985) lived in Donetsk since 1940. He studied at the pedagogical institute, worked at a mine, worked as a teacher at a school and an editor of a local newspaper. He was convicted and exiled to the Urals, where he died in a camp. In 2016, the Donetsk National University, which was transferred to the controlled territory, was given the dissident’s name.