Before the full-scale war, Inna Mykutska worked as a tour guide. When Russian troops captured Kherson, she and her daughter refused to leave the city, because: "No bastard will force us out of our home!". Inna could no longer work as a guide, and to spend her free time, she began to embroider a shirt and write a diary on social media, which she called "Chronicles of a Vyshyvanka". From her posts, many people and international media learned about the true feelings of the freedom-loving people of Kherson, temporarily forced to live in the "Russian world".

 

Inna called the shirt that she began to embroider "Vyshyvanka of Victory". There is an old Ukrainian tradition: women, when starting a vyshyvanka, made a wish on it, for instance: "when I finish it, my husband will return from war".

 

The craftswoman took the ornament for the "Vyshyvanka of Victory" from Mykhailo Bryansky's painting "Portrait of a Girl in an Embroidered Dress", which was in the exhibition of the Kherson Art Museum. Before the occupation, Inna dreamed that she would go on tours in the museum in such a shirt. And now there is a shirt, but there is no painting – the Russian invaders looted the museum and stole works of art, including this painting.

 

In Kherson, Inna wore the "Vysyvanka of Victory" only once, for a photo shoot in the botanical garden. She took a Ukrainian flag with her. On the way home, Russian soldiers stopped them at a checkpoint and inspected the car. Only a miracle saved Inna and her friends: the Russians did not look into their bags.

 

Now Inna wears this vyshyvanka only abroad or for appearances on television – "so that the world knows that we are waiting for our Victory Day, that we are still fighting for it and need help to make it closer".

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