On August 11, Dalia Makarova, the Chairperson of the Ukrainian Lithuanian Community, visited the National Library of Lithuania. The guest discussed the fate of the archives created by the Lithuanian Community in Ukraine and the possibilities of its digitization. The digitization of the documentary heritage and its integration into the portal Eaveldas.lt would open up more opportunities for users interested in the Ukrainian-Lithuanian diaspora and allow the diaspora itself to better preserve its documentary heritage.
For more than three decades, the National Library of Lithuania has been in contact with the members of the Lithuanian community living in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Lithuanian Community was established only in 2004, even though it has been active in different regions of the country since Ukraine’s independence in 1991. By the outbreak of the war in 2022, around 7,000 Lithuanians have been living in Ukraine. When the war broke out, some community members moved to safer countries. However, some of them returned to Lithuania.