The Archeparchy attends a World Affairs Council of Philadelphia Event

On Thursday, October 1st, representatives of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia attended “An Evening with Evan Gershkovich” hosted by the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia (WAC).

In March 2023 shortly after the one-year anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Evan Gershkovich, an American reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was arrested and charged with espionage by FSB agents in Russia. After a sham trial, he was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison only to be released after 16 months as part of a prisoner exchange.

During a fireside chat, WAC President & CEO Lauren Swartz engaged Gershkovich in conversation about his newly released book This Cursed Beautiful Land, a memoir of his unlawful imprisonment. Gershkovich spoke about how he admittedly misread all the signals and was lured into a trap at the time of his arrest. He discussed at length how he understood from the beginning that he was part of Russia’s plan to ‘beef-up its negotiating leverage’. He understood that he would be treated with a certain privilege. Almost immediately Gershkovich realized that he wouldn’t be tortured or interrogated in the same manner as other journalists, siting the barbaric and inhumane torture of Victoria Roshchyna, a Ukrainian journalist who was arrested around the same time as Gershkovich.

The Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy is a non-profit member of the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia and was a promotional partner for this event.