Yellow Ribbon (movement)

The Yellow Ribbon ( uk, Жовта стрічка, Zhovta strichka) is a resistance movement in the occupied territories of Ukraine, created in April 2022 after the Russian military invasion. The goal of the movement is informational resistance against the Russian occupiers.

History

April — July

In April 2022, the "Yellow Ribbon" public resistance movement emerged in the territories occupied by Russia. On 25 April, on the Telegram channel, the coordinators of the movement called on residents to hang Ukrainian flags and yellow ribbons on the streets and in crowded places. On the same day, yellow ribbons appeared in occupied Kherson.

On 27 April, "Yellow Ribbon" held a peaceful action called "Kherson is Ukraine" in Kherson. About 500 people took to the streets of the city; four of them were injured. According to the organizers, the rally became an impetus for the development of the movement. Subsequently, yellow ribbons began to appear in Oleshky, Melitopol, Nova Kakhovka, Berdiansk, Yalta, Simferopol, Kerch, Saky, Donetsk, Luhansk, Henichesk, Alushta, and other cities and villages in the occupied territories.

On 17 June, the movement held an online rally in support of Kherson on Instagram. The campaign gathered 36,000 people, 75,000 likes, and almost 20,000 shares.

On 4 July, the start of the "Stop the Referendum" open-ended campaign was announced. The goal is to disrupt the maximum number of referendums in the occupied territories. The next day, leaflets against referendums appeared in Kherson, Donetsk, Melitopol, Luhansk, and Berdiansk.

On 7 July, "Yellow Ribbon" announced the start of the open-ended campaign "Crimea - time to go home". The organizers called on Crimean activists to report data on the movement of Russian troops to the YeVorog Telegram bot, hang yellow ribbons, and send patriotic postcards saying "Crimea is Ukraine. Not only since 1954. But always!", "08/24/2022. Crimea is ready" and "Time to fight! Time to resist! Time to go home".
On 13 July, the resistance movement called on the residents of Donetsk and Luhansk regions to block the referendum, hang yellow ribbons, and transmit information about the movement of enemy troops and collaborators to the "eVorog" platform. In addition, activists in Donbas were urged to post leaflets saying "24.08.2022. Donetsk is ready" and "24.08.2022. Luhansk is ready".

On 26 July, the letter " Ї" became the new symbol of the movement. Coordinators were urged to mark buildings where the so-called "referendum" can take place:On the same day, the letter began to appear in the form of graffiti in the so-called "precincts". In addition, "Ї" soon became one of the symbols of the resistance of Ukrainians in the temporarily occupied territories.

On 30 July, "Yellow Ribbon" began offering a monetary reward for information about the activities of the occupiers. The next day, the movement called for information as a reward about the locations where the Russian invaders rest—restaurants and cafes.

Since August

On 3 August, in partnership with the Mariupol City Council, the "Yellow Ribbon" movement launched an online rally, "Mariupol is Ukraine" on Instagram.The action lasted until 22 August.

On 5 August, the movement published "love letters"—warm lines from Ukrainians with words of support for the residents of the temporarily occupied territories.

On 6 August, "Yellow Ribbon" launched the newspaper "Voice of the Partisan". The first edition consisted of 1,200 copies and was posted around Kherson. On 8 August, the newspaper began to be published in the Crimea.

On 7 August, the movement offered a reward of 10 bitcoins, or 230,000 US dollars for the arrest of Russian Crimean leader Sergey Aksyonov and information about his exact location.

In August, the campaign "Stop Referendum" became widespread. Leaflets with calls to boycott referendums and not take Russian passports began to be actively distributed in temporarily occupied settlements.

On 23 August, a new open-ended flash mob called "Stop Rashism" was launched. The goal is to rip off and damage Russian leaflets, announcements, and symbols of the occupiers in the temporarily occupied territories.

On the same day in Kyiv, at the street exhibition "Infoprotiv", initiated by the " Chesno" movement in cooperation with the National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity, one of the boards was dedicated, among other things, to the activities of the "Yellow Ribbon".

On 24 August, on the Independence Day of Ukraine, Ukrainian Railways launched the "Train to Victory" - 7 cars painted by Ukrainian artists. Each car is dedicated to a region of Ukraine and the exploits of people resisting the Russian occupiers. One of the cars is dedicated to the "Yellow Ribbon" movement.

On 31 August, "Yellow Ribbon" called on residents of occupied territories not to participate in the telephone surveys. The coordinators of the movement noted that this is one of the schemes of the occupiers to at least somehow hold a referendum:In such cases, the movement advised people not to pick up the phone and cancel the call. They also noted that there is no need to communicate with these people because the very fact of communication can be interpreted by them as a positive response to the referendum.

Symbolics

In an interview with the online publication "NV", representatives of the movement talked about the meaning of the yellow ribbon:

See also

* Ukrainian resistance during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
* 2022 protests in Russian-occupied Ukraine
* Popular Resistance of Ukraine
* Berdiansk Partisan Army

References

{{2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, state=autocollapse

Russian occupation of Ukraine
Resistance during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
Social movements
Guerrilla organizations