site.btaRepresentatives of Bulgarian Community in Ukraine Take Part in Forum on Contribution of National Minorities

A two-day forum on 33 years of Ukraine's independence and the contribution of representatives of Ukraine's national minorities started on December 3 in Kyiv, Sergiy Osadchyi, representative of the Bulgarian community in Ukraine and chairman of Kirovograd regional society of Bulgarians, told BTA on Wednesday. The participants in the forum discussed the joint path of achievements of public associations of national communities in Ukraine and strategic directions of cooperation with the State, as well as volunteer and charitable activities during the war. Sergiy Osadchyi participated in this panel, along with other representatives of the Bulgarian communities in Ukraine.

The forum continued with an online presentation by Mihail Stanchev, historian and academic, who discussed the contribution of the Olshan Bulgarians to the development of Ukraine and their resistance to collectivization in the 1920s and 1930s.

Volodymyr Polischuk, co-author of the book "Bulgarians of Kirovograd Region - Victims of Communist Terror", also gave a presentation. The work was recently published in Ukrainian by the Kirovograd regional society of Bulgarians. The book includes brief biographical data of 226 ethnic Bulgarians - born and living in the modern Kirovograd region, who suffered from illegal repression during the Soviet rule from 1918 to 1991. The authors and editors of the book are Sergiy Osadchyi and Volodymyr Polischuk.

The forum continued with panels on the preservation of the historical and cultural heritage of national minorities in Ukraine, the role of young people in the formation of civic identity, and the challenges faced by these communities in contemporary Ukrainian society.