There is a new tourism attraction in Ukraine. In Ukraine they call it terrorism. The war in Donbass is a hot subject in Ukraine. The Eastern Region of the Country and the Cities of Luhansk and Donetsk proclaiming to be independent and are cut off from the rest of Ukraine, but leaning close to Russia.

The Ukrainians call it the  Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone

Dmytro Desiateryk a Ukrainian reporter wrote an article on his visit to Ukraine’s first Anti-Terrorist Operation Museum in Dnipro  It’s official title reads: “Museum [dedicated to] the Civil Feat of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast during ATO Events” and it is formally one of the Dmytro Yavornytsky National History Museum’s six branches. The exposition consists of the indoor diorama “Battle of Dnipro” and the outdoor display “Donbas Roads.” The diorama was opened on May 25, 2016, and the indoor exhibit on January 23, 2017.

The main exposition occupies 600 square meters of the diorama’s ground floor. Among the 2,000 items on display document, photos, war decorations, personal effects of ATO officers and men, weapons, and medical instruments. The multimedia room (movie theater) offers three panoramic documentaries (two in Ukrainian and one in English) about combat operations in the east of Ukraine.

The outdoor display shows a BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle, T-64 tank turret, PM-43 regimental mortar, other weapons, an UAZ-452-truck-mounted ambulance, and a concrete mock-up of a roadblock. Practically all items on display are from battlefields. The central part of “Donbas Roads” is occupied by the sculptural composition “A Soldier and a Girl” and [a section of] a highway with road signs with the names of towns in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Behind the armored infantry vehicle is a large metal structure portraying the debris of Donetsk Airport, a monument to the Ukrainian heroes who defended the airport for 242 days.

The diorama’s ground floor has a lobby, a video hall (former movie theater for lectures illustrated by documentaries), and the Hall of Memory (former exhibition hall with a wall with pictures of heroes who forced the Dnipro River during WW II). In the lobby, items on display are mounted on metal structures symbolizing the ruins of Donetsk Airport. The walls are covered by camouflage netting. There are large thematic stands that tell about servicemen, volunteers, medics, resettlers from the enemy-occupied territories, chaplains, and media people in the field.

The Hall of Memory has over 500 photos of officers and men killed in action who were born and lived in Dnipropetrovsk oblast. There are glass cubes with personal effects of 50 KIAs, including war decorations, documents, books, parts of uniform and equipment, some showing where they were hit by bullets or shell fragments.

I was born and grew up in Dnipropetrovsk oblast, so I can’t help being emotional. The Battle of Dnipro Diorama is essentially and actually a sample of pompous clumsy Brezhnev propaganda (Leonid Brezhnev visited the place in the early 1980s, shortly before his death). The key element is a diorama portraying the forcing of the river near Dnipropetrovsk, executed in the true style of socialist realism, with a bulky foreground made of dummy blocks and trees. What attracted us kids at the time was, of course, the display of Soviet materiel ranging from an ancient howitzer to a jet fighter. We were thrilled to explore each item and no one knew – or cared to know – whether it had actually been used in combat.

The ATO Museum has breathed a new life into this mass of granite and steel. Vehicles riddled by bullets, road signs with familiar placenames, KIAs’ personal effects, a panoramic movie theater – all this well planned and multifaceted design makes one feel like reading a war novel or watching a war blockbuster, even taking part in a war scene, and certainly makes this museum one of the best in Ukraine.

“Natalia Khazan, a volunteer of the Ukrainian Defense Foundation, was among the first to conceive the idea,” the man said. “There were also servicemen, volunteers, and medics who had fought in the first battles of 2014-15. Even then we had quite a few items on display and eyewitness accounts. Our region is the closest to the front. We started on the project in February 2016. First, it was an outdoor interactive exposition meant for children, so they’d know who was fighting, with what and why. We used the History Museum’s downtown junkyard and commissioned Kyiv artist Viktor Hukalo to make the design. The first exposition occupied 1,000 square meters. Just imagine: the project was conceived in February and was launched on May 26. Three months of hard and enthusiastic work! The idea was approved by authorities on all levels. The title ‘ATO Museum’ is a popular one, compared to the official ‘Civil Feat of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast during ATO Events.’”

What was the main concept?

“Honor the living and pay homage to the dead, from day one. We wanted people to see the courage and feats of arms performed by our officers and men. We walk down peaceful streets with a clear sky above, and we tend to forget that a war is being fought some 60 miles away.