Meta restores Memorial's account with stories of 5,000 people killed by Russians

Both accounts - the Instagram page dedicated to the killed civilians and the page dedicated to the fallen soldiers - have now been restored and are operational.

Earlier the project coordinator, Yevhen Spirin, reported that in December, Meta, the company that owns Instagram, permanently deleted the page of the Memorial memory platform with the stories of 5,440 people who died as a result of Russian military aggression in Ukraine.

"These are 5,440 life stories of those who died under Russian missiles, who were killed by shrapnel and shells, who defended the country, who died in houses and basements with their families, who were kidnapped, tortured, and destroyed. 5,440 voices that must never be forgotten. Never, because forgetting is the erasure of us as Ukrainians," Spirin said.

He said that from October to December, the Memorial's page was blocked a total of 4 times. And in December, Meta deleted "everything forever," but the information is still available on the Memorial's website.

"Perhaps Meta doesn't want the screams of children covered in concrete to be among the happy life of Instagram. Or maybe it's just for fun. But this will not stop Memorial," the coordinator emphasized and shared a link to the project's new Instagram page.

He noted that he did not apply to Meta because he did not see the point. 

"But somewhere there, in the remnants of what used to be called the heart, I still hope that it is possible, although I don't know how to do it. Maybe you do," Spirin added.