On March 15, 2022, DTEK’s Executive Director Dmytro Sakharuk addressed the UN Global Compact Target Gender Equality LIVE event, which was dedicated to women's rights and gender equality. Due to the situation in Ukraine, DTEK's Executive Director was given the first word immediately after the opening of the event.

Dmytro Sakharuk stressed that gender equality, women's leadership, women's rights to equal pay, the right to build a career on an equal footing with men are really important issues in times of peace.

“Unfortunately, today Ukraine and all its women live in conditions of a full-scale war unleashed by russia. Therefore, for tens of millions of Ukrainian women these days, completely different rights are of the highest priority. The right to have a child alive, not killed by a russian missile. The right to have a living husband not killed by russian bullets. The right to have living, not buried under the rubble of houses destroyed by russian bombs. And overall the fundamental right for women to be alive. The main thing that Ukrainian women want now is just to survive and for their families to survive,”

- Sakharuk said.

 

He also informed, that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as of March 14 registered 1,761 civilian casualties in Ukraine: 636 killed and 1,125 wounded. Among those killed were 127 men, 91 women, 10 boys and 6 girls, as well as 30 children under 10 years old and 372 adults, whose gender is still unknown.

 

“This is UN data. And according to the Ukrainian authorities, only in Mariupol, a city that is under a complete blockade of the Russian army, 2,187 residents died during military aggression and constant bombing. Russian soldiers do not let people out of the city and do not let humanitarian aid through. People there are dying not only from bombings, but also from hunger,”

- Sakharuk said.

 

“Our women are our heroes. They give birth in air-raid shelters, they lead children without panic every day to shelters during air raids and come up with various entertainments to save the children's psychic health from the horrors of war. Today all Ukrainian women have become defenders of their land. And each of them makes its contribution to the common victory. Some in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, some as a volunteer, some continue doing their usual, but now so important work - in hospitals, pharmacies, shops, various companies,”

stressed Sakharuk.

 

In addition, Dmytro Sakharuk called on the international community to shelter sky over all Ukrainian nuclear power plants and to impose an absolute embargo on Russian oil and gas.

 

Link to the video of the speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMiSlB48OMY