On December 6, Ukrainian Armed Forces Day, Ukrainian "Channel 5" presented a calendar with the image of its female employees, who appeared without clothes and underwear.

Private parts of the body are covered.

Such an initiative caused dissatisfaction among Ukrainians and media workers. 

12 women posed, covering their private parts with weapons.

The organizers said that all the money received from the sale of the calendar will be donated to the Armed Forces.

The author of the photo session is the channel's sound engineer Yuriy Gubriy, the idea of ​​the project belongs to the cameraman Hanka Kudryavtseva.

Both presenters and those women who do not work in the frame agreed to be models.

According to Kudryavtseva, she initiated the project because "guys on the front lines like nudes."

"1 million hryvnias for Motorola walkie-talkies for our Armed Forces. We congratulate our soldiers on Armed Forces Day and start a volunteer project to collect funds for the front lines. Channel 5 employees undressed for a special 2023 calendar. All photos are uncensored," it says in Telegram "Channel 5". 

The reaction of the media

Representatives of public, human rights and media organizations condemned the publication of a calendar with naked female journalists in support of Ukrainian military personnel. 

In it, the signatories call on the authors of the project to refuse the distribution of the calendar with images of women without clothes and underwear, stressing that otherwise it will contribute to the promotion of sexist narratives.

"We, representatives of public, women's, human rights and media organizations, categorically condemn this method of collecting money for the needs of the army and consider this action full of discriminatory and sexist narratives.

This nullifies the work done by the media and civil society so that women in Ukraine, including military personnel, are not perceived as sexual objects," the joint statement reads.

In addition, the authors of the statement ask the government commissioner for gender policy, the Human Rights Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Commission on Journalistic Ethics to assess the legality and ethics of the actions of Channel 5.

Journalists also drew attention to the scandalous project

"Dear Channel 5, if your military friends like nude photos, send them to private. Don't devalue the profession. Aren't there more ways to raise money?"

- wrote military correspondent Iryna Sampan.

"During the 8 years of the war, female journalists went to the front just like their male colleagues. And all this time we proved that we do our job no worse than men...

And suddenly the whole channel decides to give happiness and joy to the military, because one marine is tired of looking at destroyed houses and wants a beautiful female body.

So let's find 12 female journalists!" - added the journalist.

Ukrainian environmentalist, journalist and public activist Ihor Tykholaz is sure that there is nothing immoral in the calendar with naked female journalists.  

"For 24 years in a row, Australian firefighters have been publishing New Year's calendars with their bodies, collecting millions of donations for good causes. Both setting a trend for the whole world, and fulfilling a social mission. The whole world applauds them. Our Ukrainian journalists did an erotic photo session on their own initiative , in order to raise funds for the Armed Forces of Ukraine - horror... They blow up a scandal out of nothing, puff up their cheeks, and again, if they defend something, it is only their perverted vision of the world," Tyholaz wrote. 

The reaction of the TV channel

The editor-in-chief of "Channel 5" Iryna Gerasimova said in a comment to "Hromadske": "The support of the military, who wrote to us both publicly and privately, is very valuable. We now know that calendars are waiting on the front lines no less than walkie-talkies, for which we collect funds. We have already started receiving donations for this collection, although there was not even an announcement for the sale of calendars yet."

Reaction of Ukrainians

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