Their two founders of the “Yellow Ribbon” movement, Taras and Ivan, received the Sakharov Prize from the European Union in December 2022. Franceinfo met one of them.
As kyiv prepares a counter-offensive, Russia reinforces its defenses in the regions it has conquered in Ukraine. But a peaceful resistance is organized in the occupied territories. Hundreds of Ukrainians refuse to collaborate in Kherson, Melitopol, Lugansk, Donetsk, or Mariupol. All these cities that the Ukrainian army hopes to liberate soon. Their actions are coordinated by a movement born in Kherson, in the south of the country, a little over a year ago: Yellow Ribbon, or “Yellow Ribbon”. Their two founders, Taras and Ivan (these are pseudonyms), received the Sakharov Prize from the European Union in December 2022. franceinfo was able to meet one of them.
Since last month, 52 photos of yellow and blue hourglasses, painted on the walls of the occupied territories were identified on social networks. The idea comes from Ivan. Until the recapture of Kherson in November, cand 22-year-old computer scientist was also living under Russian occupation. Since then, he organizes from kyiv the network of those he calls “supporters”. “In many cities, the Russians have inscribed everywhere the letter Z, he explains. With a single line, you can close this letter, then paint the upper part in blue, then the lower part in yellow. The result is an hourglass that symbolizes the time remaining before the territories are liberated.” An ingenious, inexpensive initiative and above all within everyone’s reach.
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Local acts of sabotage
Today in the five occupied regions, 70,000 resistance fighters in all share their information via a secure chat forum. Of the 17,000 “supporters” assets identified, 12,000 are in Kherson and Zaporijjia, 3,000 in the Crimea, and a thousand in the Donbass. Mr. and Mrs. Everybody can therefore engage at their level. “We can speak of local acts of sabotagedescribes Ivan. If you are a mechanic, for example, you can do something to damage the equipment, thus causing a dangerous situation and killing Russians.”
Ivan also cites the possibility for teachers in schools, forced to follow Russian curricula, to continue teaching elements of the Ukrainian curriculum. Or the collection of information on Russian troops. “Where they sleep, where are their HQs… We check, through our activists, through open source intelligence [Open source intelligence, ou OSINT]. And we pass this information on to the secret services, to the armed forces or, in the case of war crimes, to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.” Ihe movement launched by Ivan and Taras gained momentum in June when the first bombings and acts of sabotage were organized in Crimea. After having started by denying its existence, the Pro-Russian authorities began targeting the movement with propaganda videos last September. But that only gave him visibility and his audience grew even more.
39 members were arrested
IThere are obviously risks. In a video, for example, we see a women forced to confess that she pasted yellow and blue posters in a shop front. Igor and his team try since releasing her. “She could be sentenced to seven years in prison for this. We are working to enable him to escape to Georgia or Poland via Russia. We know how to bribe the Russians. We transferred $400 to him in a crypto account and we hope he will be fine.”
Ivan himself was arrested in Kherson on May 9, 2022 during a protest with 30 other people. He was later released and decided to leave Kherson for kyiv on November 22, from where he now manages the “Yellow Ribbon” movement. Exchanges on the network are anonymous, based on encryption protocols the most advanced communications, yet, 39 members have been arrested then moved to Russia. Igor and the “Yellow Ribbons” haven’t heard from for weeks.