On May 12, 2012, in Odessa, Ukraine, Russian and Ukrainian IPPNW national affiliates co-rganized and held an international IPPNW student conference entitled “From Chernobyl to Fukushima”. The conference took place in the Odessa Polytechnical University. More than 400 medical students and young doctors took part in the conference, representing a large variety of regions of Ukraine, Russia, a number of other CIS countries including South Caucasian and Central Asian regions. Also, the conference was attended by medical students from Central and Western European countries studying in the Odessa Medical University, as well as by students of the Odessa Polytechnical University.

In fact, the conference proved to be the largest in scale IPPNW youth event in the CIS region for the last two decades and the first in Ukraine. Beside the medical students and young doctors from Odessa region there were participants coming from Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkov, Zaparozhye, Kremenchug, Crimea, and other major Ukrainian cities and regions.

The conference received welcome addresses from the Verkhovnaya Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine, Odessa city and regional administrations, as well as from the Metropolitan Aghaphangel of Odessa and Izmail (one of the highest clergymen of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine). Addresses were made by Julia Kovalevskaya, Peoples’ Deputy (MP) of Ukraine, Dmitry Voloshin, Vice-Governor of the Odessa Region, Archimandrite Serafim, Rector of the Odessa Ecclesiastical Seminary, among other.

Among the key speakers at the conference were, among other, Sergey Kolesnikov, IPPNW Co-President, Vladimir Garkavenko, IPPNW At-Large Member, Irina Yuzefpolskya, head of IPPNW-Ukraine, Chief Physician of the Odessa Central Maternity Clinic, Alena Bessmertnaya, IPPNW European Student Representative (Donetsk), Vilena Dyakova, young doctor from St.-Petersburg, Oleg Voinov, Director of the “Voices of Chernobyl” documentary film, Svetlana Tikhonova, Professor of the Department of Inner Deseases Of the Odessa Medical University, Maksim Maksimov, Professor of the Department of Thermoenergetic Processes of the Odessa Polytechnical University, Yuri Donskoy, Member of the Public Council of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

The presentations covered a large spectrum of issues related to the medical impact of Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters, challenges in nuclear disarmament, role and strategies of civil society in facilitating nuclear disarmament and nuclear safety in Ukraine, CIS and worldwide, IPPNW and its student movement activities and programs including ICAN, energy potential alternative to nuclear energy and hydrocarbons. The presentations received keen interest from the audience and were followed with active discussions. Also introduced and prime-screened were feature documentaries “Voices of Chernobyl” and “Electricity”.

Apart of the conference, the organizers – leadership of Ukrainian and Russian IPPNW affiliates including Irina Yuzefpolskaya, Sergey Kolesnikov and Vladimir Grakavenko – held meetings at the Odessa regional and city administrations with the Governor of the Odessa region and Mayor of the City of Odessa, took part in a popular live TV talk show on one of the central Ukrainian TV Channels and gave interviews to the major Ukrainian TV channels and news agencies. As a result, the IPPNW Odessa conference and issues raised during it became among top news on its opening day and two following days and received a very extensive press-coverage.

The Odessa IPPNW medical student and young doctors’ forum – the largest in scale IPPNW youth event in the CIS region for the last two decades and the first ever in Ukraine – has become a very successful and resonant event in CIS and Ukraine in particular, it raised a lot of interest among the young medical public and attracted numerous supporters to IPPNW activities in the region.

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