A scandal erupted around a lecture by Ukrainian military writer Yevhen Vryadnyk, which was supposed to take place on April 19 at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. After the "Anti-Discrimination Committee" of NaUKMA appealed to the university administration, they asked not to hold the event, but the military writer did deliver the lecture - in front of the building.
Blogger and book reviewer Tetyana Honchenko, author of the Telegram channel "Indestructible Book Reader", spoke in more detail about the incident.
"The situation is, therefore, as follows. A writer (and military man) named Yevhen Vryadnyk, whose book "Autarky. Self-sufficiency in the modern world" was published in Our Format, wanted to give a lecture within the walls of Mohylyanka," the channel's author recalls.
The topic of the lecture was "Heroic Breed: From Old Ukraine to the Third Liberation War."
"In short, the idea is that the population of Ukraine should be divided into breeds (this is the term he directly uses), liberalism is evil, and human rights, equality, and gays should be abolished as harmful values. In short, this was actually supposed to be a lecture about the need to introduce fascism in Ukraine," writes Honchenko, adding screenshots.
However, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy "came to its senses in time," as the blogger points out: "... they gathered the "Anti-Discrimination Commission" and decided that fascism was not welcome there and asked Mr. Yevhen not to hold such a lecture."
Instead, the writer gathered people on the street in front of the building, gave a lecture, and wrote an article "about the fact that his sacred right to freedom of speech was taken away from him, to talk about the fact that people should be deprived of their right to freedom of speech."
Later, the publishing house also commented on this incident. "Nash Format" called the ban on the Ukrainian military's lecture unacceptable:
"We do not accept such censorship and condemn the decision of the NaUKMA leadership. Our position: Ukrainian military personnel have the right to vote... The university is a space for dialogue. We may have different views, but this is not a reason to close discussions. The NaUKMA leadership has not yet provided an official comment on the incident. The lack of transparency undermines trust in the university. Yevhen's experience is worthy of the attention of young people."
The author of the Telegram channel explaining "Our Format" herself comments as follows:
""Nash Format"" signed up for the author, repeatedly emphasizing that "you see, the military was banned from something, shame on Mohyla," but for some reason did not indicate what the lecture was supposed to be about."
In conclusion, she adds: "Nothing in this story surprised me at all, because we know the views of the founder of the National Socialist Party, but it looks funny, you must agree."
"Apostrophe" also wrote that the social network suspected the publishing house of translating the book not from English, but from Russian - citing several errors that were noticed in the text.