I believe culture is a weapon - Ukranian paramedic Taira at Vincenz Prize award ceremony

This is reported by Espreso TV.

The prize named after the Polish writer and translator Stanislaw Vincenz "For humanitarian service and contribution to the development of regions" has been awarded for the 5th time at the Via Carpatia Forum. The award ceremony took place in Lviv. This year's award is primarily about how Ukrainians are ending authoritarianism in Ukraine and in the world.

"Developing this award idea, we really wanted people to realize the importance of 2 things. The first one, of course, is democracy. Because what is happening now is obviously a struggle against the destruction of Ukraine by the imperial center, but it is also actually the beginning of a world war of authoritarianism against democracy," noted Mykola Knyazhytskyi during the award ceremony. "We are called to put an end to authoritarianism in the world. We, Ukrainians, as a nation. As a nation that knows how to love, as a nation that has always understood what democracy is, throughout its history. Because democracy for us is also everyone's freedom, and it was not by chance that we named this award after Stanislaw Vincenz."

"Once I got an interesting piece on Eastern medicine. There was one phrase that there is nothing in the world that could not become a cure. I thought that there is one more thing that fits these criteria. That there is nothing in the world that could not become a weapon. First of all, for me, culture is a weapon. Just like medicine,” says Taira confidently during the award ceremony. “Let culture become our weapon, and weapons become a cure against the Moscow plague. And let these 2 things show the world the greatness and beauty of the Ukrainian soul."

Yulia Paievska dedicated her award, in particular, to Volodymyr Vakulenko, a children's writer tortured and killed by Russian troops.