We deserved the war because we wanted to live equally, - Volodymyr Umanenko

"I want to live unequally. Not even unequally, but asymmetrically. Because life is a very paradoxical asymmetrical thing. And when we want to live evenly... We wanted to live exactly like this for 30 years, and the war happened to us. I think we all deserved it. This attitude of our neighbors is because we allowed it, because we didn't relax, but because we wanted to live equally, to sit quietly in our cherry orchard and eat some dietary dumplings. That's how we got there. Basically, it's a test, but I just don't know what to say, I feel and know, in my own way, that we are at the peak, even at the exit, and we are the first ones to get out of this crisis that is happening in the world, I don't know how it is in the world, but in Europe we are the first ones to get out of this crisis that is happening in the world."

"Muzychko is wrong. I don't know him, I don't know him, it doesn't matter. He is, to put it mildly, wrong. He's wrong about everything. I don't even want to comment on it, I could say that I don't want to talk about a person who, I don't know, is a shit or has it coming out of him. He's just wrong. And he should apologize, and he should apologize for a long time, because he didn't know the person he was talking about. And this is not because he is my close person, my colleague, my godfather. Well, even for that you can apologize. That's just wrong."

"After the full-scale invasion began, the street became the only platform for art, because all museums, galleries and everything else was closed. Well, we understand, right? In March 2022, for about a week, the first week, I realized this wonderful collapse, that those who took an assault rifle took an assault rifle, and those who had a brush started painting. I immediately wanted to do it on Deribasovskaya Street, as the most public place in the city, but on the third day, Derebasovskaya Street was already covered in hedgehogs and wire, well, it was blocked off. And then I walked around the city looking for places where it could be done, where someone had something open. I wanted some kind of motto, not a slogan, but a motto. And this notion of freedom or death, I just said no, no, wait, that's not right. I don't want to have that choice. It's a kind of competitor, not an opportunistic choice. And I put the question of will, denial, not death. And that's why I realized, I already felt it then, and then I saw that we had basically pulled life out into the open."

"Trukhanov should not have been elected in the first place, and it took so long to get him out. And I wonder why he hasn't yet suffered what he should have suffered as an administrator and perhaps as a person. And Liptuga was not a very good head of the department. And this was also wrong, in my opinion. I'm not saying that I don't know who Lysak is. I still don't see him at all. I haven't seen him in our museum at our exhibitions. I'm not familiar with him, and for me this is not a very correct position, because he is a new person in the city and he should know, if not everyone in the city, then at least those who should know. If I were in his place, I would just walk around the city and get to know the city and the people. That's how it's done."