*President Zelenskyy best Commander-In-Chief, says Deputy Head of Mission, Cherinko

As war between Russia and Ukraine rages, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has engaged the stage to tell the story of the hostility against his country that has spanned over 16 months.

Titled Superpower, a two-hour documentary which was directed by Aaron Kaufman and Sean Penn, featured recently at the Silverbird Galleria, Abuja, by the Embassy of Ukraine in Nigeria.

The embassy was represented at the show by the Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission, Mr. Ihor Cherinko and other staff of the embassy.

Also in the audience were members of the diplomatic community in Nigeria, representatives of Nigerian government as well as private individuals.

The documentary which ran for over two hours painted a vivid accounts of killings, rape, bloodshed, destructions of lives and properties in the cities of Ukraine.
Unlike drama that is often said to be imitation of lives, Superpower presents a true life account of the harsh living conditions of citizens and residents of cities in Ukraine that have been devastated by the war.

One thing that was not surprising however was the role of President Zelenskyy in the documentary. The former comedian and actor featured prominently in Superpower but this time, not as an imitator life but direct representation of life as it is lived in Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

Aside the ruins, destruction of basic amenities, killing of civilian citizens, including those waiting for evacuation at train stations and even those in their homes, pictures of bodies littering the streets as well as cases of rape leveled against Russia, the documentary equally captured the resilient and united Ukraine citizens, who were willing to sacrifice their comfort and even lives for the freedom of their country.

The documentary further highlighted the extent of damage to farm lands and the store houses, which it said, holds great implications to food security across the world.

Speaking at the end of the show, the Deputy Head of Mission, Cherinko, explained that the documentary served to inform the world about the happenings in Ukraine, and to seek further assistance from the global community towards winning the war.

He said: “I was in Kyiv beginning of March and I can personally tell you a lot concerning this war. I live on the 15th floor building and you know that at the beginning of winter last year – in October, Russia began the bombing of Ukrainian plants.

“And you know that power plants provide electricity to the people. Following the bombing of power plants near houses, electricity supply was cut off from buildings. I had to go to my 15th floor, not second floor, not third floor but 15th floor by foot because elevators are not working as power plant near my house was always bombed. This power plant does not provide electricity to any military but to civilian buildings and to trade centres.

“I am 37 years old and it is hard for me to climb up to the 15th floor; what then about 85-year old people climbing up to 25th floor by foot. It is barbaric.

“For example, they killed so many people at the train station in the city of Kramatorsk – people waiting for evacuation. A whole week will not be enough to talk about Russian military crimes.

They fight against civilian population; they do not fight against the military because they cannot defeat our military”, he said.

Speaking on the motivation for choosing the medium of drama to highlight alleged war crimes by Russia against Ukraine, and whether it had to do with President Zelenskyy being a former movie star?

Cherinko stated that although a movie star, President Zelenskyy was the choice of the people considering the margin with which he defeated his opponents during the election that brought him to power.

“You know, when a President becomes a movie star, he is still the President. He was elected by all population of Ukraine. We have never had such a great result. He got more than 70 per cent of votes. All the people supported him. I am very proud of my President and I am happy I voted for him because he is the best Commander In-Chief. I cannot imagine what would happen if another person was the President of Ukraine in this time of war.

Ukraine is united. Those people that Russia want to show as though they don’t want to live in Ukraine are not true. They brought people from Russia and made them occupy Ukraine territory such as Crimea. They gave them houses of those who had to run away from the territories once controlled by Ukrainian government and they portrayed them to be supporting Russia, it is not true.

“That was barbaric. They released people from prisons who were jailed for raping and killing but Ukraine has unity. We want to join NATO and we want to join European Union. We want to be Europeans, not Russians”, Cherinko added.

According to him, the documentary is shown in several countries of the world and the choice of Nigeria hinged on its position as the giant of Africa with huge population. “That is the reason we decided to show it to Nigerian population”, he stated.