‘I was heard’, – Mstyslav Chernov comments on his speech during Oscar ceremony
Source: Voice of America
Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov, who won the Oscar in the Best Documentary Film category for ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ movie, told about his speech delivered during the award ceremony.
The director noted that during his speech, the hall was so quiet that one could hear a pin hitting the floor.
‘It was the most silent moment in this room during the entire ceremony. So I feel that yes, I was heard,’ Chernov stated.
He added that several people told him after the ceremony that they were crying. ‘And I was so happy to know that my words reached their hearts,’ he said.
According to Chernov, all the actors and directors he spoke with expressed support for Ukraine and concern about what is happening now.
‘There are so many things and you have to fit them into the 45 seconds you have on stage. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say until the last moment,’ he explained.
Ukrainian movie ’20 days in Mariupol’ became the winner of Oscar 2024 as the best documentary feature film.
The documentary tells about the siege of Mariupol by Russian troops in 2022. As a full-scale Russian invasion begins, a team of journalists trapped in the besieged Mariupol struggles to continue their work documenting the tragedies of war.
In 2025, the deadliest year yet for civilians, Ukraine’s three largest charitable foundations raised a record 105.9 billion hryvnias. It is more than the years 2022–2024 combined. According to the UN, humanitarian aid in Ukraine was delivered by more than 450 organisations, reaching five million people over the course of the year. Civic foundations hold licences to purchase lethal weapons, which is a function states have monopolised for centuries. These record sums were underwritten by international government grants, which means foreign states now channel billions directly through Ukrainian civic funds, bypassing inter-state channels. It is hard to imagine a stronger institutional trust in civil society.
During the GLOBSEC Defence Forum 2026 in Prague, representatives of “Steel Front”, an initiative by Rinat Akhmetov, discussed with NATO delegations, military officials, and representatives of the European defense industry the lessons learned from Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
After the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine witnessed an unprecedented wave of private support for the army. Citizens, big businesses, charitable foundations, and international philanthropists began financing the country’s defense alongside state assistance provided by international partners. Estimates of total private contributions range from tens to hundreds of billions of hryvnias. However, determining the exact amount remains difficult. In many cases, companies combine military aid, humanitarian programs, tax payments, social spending, and employee support in their reporting.
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On October 6, the Administrative Cassation Court within the Supreme Court of Ukraine continued hearing case No. 990/80/25, in which the fifth President and leader of the party “European Solidarity”, Petro Poroshenko, seeks to have Presidential Decree No. 81/2025 from February 12, 2025 — enacting sanctions by the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) — declared illegal and annulled. The plaintiff claims the document was falsified and that the sanctions are a tool of political persecution of the opposition, contrary to international norms. Government representatives deny the allegations and insist their actions were lawful. Journalists of Bukvy were present at the hearing.