Elżbieta Witek opened the showcase at the European Parliament complex in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Entitled Ukrainian Woman, the exhibition, put together by the Polish lower house, the Sejm, features photographs showing "the many faces of the heroines of Ukraine,” officials said.
The photos portray women from the war-torn country in the many roles they play amid the Russian invasion, from mothers, grandmothers and refugees to volunteers, artists and soldiers, reporters were told.
‘Ukrainian women are brave'
Witek told reporters at the launch of the display: “The exhibition which I have the honour to open shows the different faces and the different sides of Ukrainian women."
She added: "On the one hand, the images depict their enormous pain, suffering and concern for their loved ones. On the other, we see the face of the woman, of the Ukrainian woman, who is immensely brave, determined to protect her loved ones, but also to serve her homeland.”
Witek said: "In the months since the war in Ukraine began, the share of women fighting and serving in the Ukrainian army has increased from 10 to 22 percent. They want to fight, they don’t want to be just victims of this war, and for this they deserve enormous gratitude.”
At Wednesday’s ceremony, Witek was accompanied by women parliamentary Speakers from Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia, among other countries, officials told reporters.
‘We are going to win’
Olena Kondratiuk, the Second Deputy Chair of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada parliament, thanked the European community for the support extended to her country and the Ukrainian people.
She praised the Ukrainian Woman exhibition, saying the showcase “allows us to look truth in the eyes.”
Kondratiuk also said that her country was proud that its armed forces, including female soldiers, “are defending not just Ukraine, but the whole European Union, all the women, all the children who are currently living in the EU.”
“Together with the men, we’ll make this world a better place,” Kondratiuk said at the ceremony in Brussels. “I am convinced of that. I am convinced that we are going to win.”
The Ukrainian Woman showcase, on display at the Ukrainian Civil Society Hub, opposite the main entrance to the European Parliament, runs until November 4.
Wednesday is day 231 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, europarl.europa.eu