Leo Wolansky - Remembrance of the Mariupol Drama Theater - ДЕТИ-Project, March 16, 2024

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We were joined by our very special guest Leo Wolansky (@LeoWolanskySr on Twitter). He is the chair of Radiology at University of Connecticut and first past-president of the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America (UMANA). We discussed the “21st Day of Mariupol,” a remembrance of destruction of the Mariupol Drama Theater.

On the anniversary of the Mariupol theater bombing, Leo was again struck by the horrible war-crime and noticed an irony. The russian word for children “ДЕТИ” had been written in giant letters on the parking lot pavement outside the Mariupol theater to alert the russian pilots not to bomb the building, but was disregarded. He imagined the terror experienced by the mothers and children who could have been separated by the devastation, thinking “Where are you?” about their loved ones. He realized a profound irony that the russian word for children written on the pavement of the theater means nothing in Ukrainian, but if separated into two words, “ДЕ” and “ТИ” the phrase means “Where are you?” Leo decided to write a song based on this tragic irony. His friend Leda heard the song and felt that it was so moving it could be used to gain attention and sympathy for Ukraine. They came upon the idea to use the song to implore supporters of Ukraine to recreate the sign on the second anniversary of the bombing, March 16. Multiple Ukrainian diaspora organizations have already started creating the giant signs, to help with the promotional campaign, including the Canada and the US. Ukrainians in Lviv and Kyiv have become engaged. Dudaryk, a renowned Ukrainian boys’ choir and Volodymyr Tykhyy a successful film director from the Babylon’13 group decided to participate in the creation of a music video. It is estimated that 600 people died in the bombing, many of them children. Our hope is to help the 6,000,000 children still in Ukraine.

The ДЕТИ-Project - In memory of lost children, helps understand why the Russian so-called “special military operation” checks the boxes for genocide: https://dety-charities.com

Leo Wolansky, is the chair of Radiology at University of Connecticut and first past-president of the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America (UMANA). He has also been a semi-professional musician both in pop and classical style. He was born to a family of Ukrainians, who immigrated to the US after WWII. Due to the ongoing genocidal tendency of the Kremlin against Ukrainians, this wave of immigrants created a kind of “Ukraine-in-exile,” including Ukrainian schools, churches, professional as well as cultural organizations for dance, song, and theater. Leo studied pre-medical at Columbia University and music composition at Columbia university and upon graduating married Maria, a classical singer, who had grown up in the Ukrainian ghetto of NYC. They sang together in a Ukrainian singing group for which Leo composed several pieces. Maria and Leo have four sons, who are also musical and they have performed together. In 1996 Leo founded a Radiology conference series, in the Ukrainian language (most Medical education was in Russian). The course is still active today and has attracted Radiologists from throughout the country, in the past including Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk. From 2021-2023, Leo served as president of the UMANA. During his term 2022, UMANA raised $2 million and $20 million-worth in supplies for Ukraine. Leo traveled to Ukraine in October 2022 to lecture on Radiology.