27 September ceremony in Thil: cancelled and postponed
This brief background explains how the unveiling ceremony for the statues – those poisoned gifts from the Russian and Belarusian states – was ultimately cancelled and postponed.
On Monday 21 September, the mayor of Thil, Mr Stéphan Brusco, met with the president and vice-president of Ad Pacem – For Peace & Against War at the town hall.
For the Ad Pacem representatives, it became clear from this discussion that the mayor’s arguments were insufficient to justify holding the ceremony on Sunday 27 September. Subsequently, the Ad Pacem representatives contacted the counsellor at the Ukrainian Embassy in Paris, Mr Bohdan Vasnevskyi, to meet with him on the morning of Wednesday 23 September (see link to photo with this counsellor). At the end of this meeting, the embassy officials decided to send a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and another to the mayor of Thil (see link).
Journalists from Le Républicain Lorrain were informed that same day that this ceremony had no right to take place, as it misappropriates the memory of the Soviet women of the Rodina detachment.
The representatives of Échanges Lorraine Ukraine (ELU) joined the initiative to express their opposition to the ceremony taking place.
Thil Town Hall and the Prefecture of Nancy were informed of the counter-demonstrations planned for Sunday morning outside the mine entrance.
On Thursday morning, 24 September, Ad Pacem sent out Newsletter 51, inviting all members to come and demonstrate in Thil on Sunday 27.
On the same day, Le Républicain Lorrain, in its local edition and its ‘Region’ section, brought this ceremony to public attention and highlighted the arguments put forward by the organisations Ad Pacem and ELU in favour of its cancellation (see PDF link to article).
On Thursday evening, the Luxembourg newspaper l’Essentiel reported in its online edition at 9.26 pm that the ceremony had been postponed at the request of the French authorities.
On Friday 25 September, during the course of the day, the mayor of Thil announced in a circular that the ceremony scheduled for 27 September had been cancelled and postponed to a later date.
On Saturday morning, the association Ad Pacem – For Peace & Against War sent a letter to the President of the Republic, Mr Macron, requesting (see link) that the ‘statues of shame’ – which had already been installed, albeit covered with a sheet, in front of the mine (see photo) – be returned to the Russian and Belarusian states.
Best regards!
Claude Pantaleoni
President of Ad Pacem servandam – For Peace & Against War