He wrote about Ukraine and painted Shevchenko: Ukrainian actress tells interesting facts about the artist who was "stolen" by Russia

Ukrainian actress Nadiya Marinka, who starred in the 6th season of the TV series The Dog, is from Chuhuiv, Kharkiv region. With the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, she had to leave and evacuate her 11 children to Portugal. It is there that she plans to spread Ukrainian art, not forgetting one of her favorite Ukrainian artists who was stolen by Russia, Ilya Ripyn (Repin).

In an exclusive interview with OBOZ.UA, she revealed some interesting facts about his life. It turned out that Ilya Ripyn and Nadia Marinka are from the same city, so this became another reason for the actress to organize a project dedicated to this Ukrainian artist.

"I really want to realize one project that I thought about before the war, dedicated to the artist Ilya Ripyn, who, like me, was born in Chuhuiv and was appropriated by Russia. By the way, now many sources have changed the information that Ripyn is a Ukrainian artist," Marinka told us about her plans.

She was also surprised by the indifference of cultural workers who did not defend Repin's affiliation with Ukraine, because he created incredible works of art, starting with "Cossacks Write a Letter to the Turkish Sultan" and ending with "Burlaks on the Volga."

"I started writing about him and thought: why didn't Ukraine defend him? After all, he wrote a lot about Ukraine, painted a portrait of Taras Shevchenko, and praised the way Ukrainian women dress," the actress shared some interesting facts about Repin.

In particular, there is often a public perception that the eastern part of Ukraine does not have a sufficient number of good writers, although this is not the case, as Marinka pointed out.

"It is often said that in the west of Ukraine there is Ukraine, and the eastern part is Russianized. And I want to shout that we, in Slobozhanshchyna, have a piece of culture that Repin wrote about! I hope that one day I will have the opportunity to present what I am recording now. And yes, I want to do something here in Portugal. I want to show that I didn't just come here for nothing. I don't want to be a refugee. I want to be a Ukrainian, no matter what country I am in," Nadiya Marinka said emotionally.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA wrote about Ukrainian museums that Russia tried to destroy. One of them was the Kharkiv Art Museum, which kept the works of Ilya Repin in a separate room.

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