Digital Exhibition MAKE RUSSIA PAY opened in Brussels on November 28. The exhibition, organised by Ukrainian activists and cultural managers, aims to tell the story of the losses suffered by Ukraine during the war in numbers and explain why Russia must pay for its crimes.

The exhibition will be open to visitors until 2 December. Location: SHAME Gallery, Rue de la Paille, 30, 1000 Brussels. Working hours: 10:00–20:00. Entrance is free. 

The content of the exhibition was created by a team of cultural managers and curators who come from the regions most affected by the war. It includes animated videos with a wide range of figures and data on Ukraine’s losses caused by war, posters with key messages and 360-degree videos from the destruction of Mriya plane, airports, infrastructure, and people’s homes to architectural monuments and educational institutions. In addition, viewers can get acquainted with information on the number of frozen Russian assets and the legal mechanisms and ways to confiscate them. It is a combination of art, analytics and emotional components. 

The authors of the video and concept are Ukrainian cultural managers and youth culture activists — Creative Beast agency (Kyiv), NGO Shum.Rave (Slovyansk).  VR component was developed by 360war.in.ua, photographer Dmytro Malyshev.

The exhibition is part of a large advocacy campaign #MakeRussiaPay conducted by Ukrainian civil society activists to direct frozen Russian state assets to Ukraine in order to compensate for the damage caused and stop this war.  

The documented damages as of March 2023 reached $411 billion. Russian destruction of the Kakhovka Dam alone has caused almost $14 billion in additional damages to Ukraine. The scorched-earth tactic employed by Russia in the war inflicts irreversible damage on the Ukrainian economy daily. The longer the war continues, the greater the losses. It is time to compel Russia to pay for its actions. It is time to use frozen Russian central bank assets worth around $350 billion for Ukraine’s recovery, compensation for damages, and defense.

After Brussels, the exhibition is planned to travel to major cities in Europe and the United States.

The organizers of the project are the Warsaw-based International Centre for Ukrainian Victory, and the Ukrainian NGO —  the ANTS Network.