On Monday morning, October 10, the most massive shelling of Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion took place. Russians hit power generating facilities and non-strategic targets such as parks, museums, libraries and tourist sites. Ukraine needs weapons to stop the aggressor and end this war. Help us to #ArmUkraineNow!

What’s going on?

·  As a result of impotence on the battlefield, Russia is massively bombarding Ukrainian cities, using UAVs and various missiles, in order to destroy civilian infrastructure and provoke panic. This Monday, the aggressor has launched nearly a hundred missiles. The time chosen for the attack – rush hour when people get to work and take their children to schools and kindergartens – contributed to a higher number of civilian casualties. On October 10, Russian airstrikes killed at least 19 people and wounded at least 105.

·  Critical infrastructure facilities in Kyiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne, Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Poltava, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, and Khmelnytskyi regions were attacked. As a result, many cities, including Kyiv and Lviv, were left without electricity, heating and water. 

·  A number of cultural and educational objects in Kyiv have been damaged: Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts, Kyiv Picture Gallery, National Philharmonic of Ukraine, Maksymovych Scientific Library, Kyiv City Teacher’s House, the buildings of the Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Institute of Archeography of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Pedagogical Museum of Ukraine and the Museum of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921 and headquarters of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The National Research and Restoration Centre, the museums of Mykola Bazhan and Pavlo Tychyna, the National Science and Natural Museum of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Museum of the History of the City of Kyiv were left without windows. The total number of objects of cultural heritage, cultural institutions and religious buildings damaged by Russian strikes in Ukraine during the full-scale war is 540.

·  Civilian objects and critical infrastructure have been the key targets of Russia since the beginning of the full-scale war. This is nothing but international terrorism. Russian Federation must be punished and recognised as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Losses

·  The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has recorded 15,592 civilian casualties in Ukraine since February 24, when Russia started its full-scale war. It is impossible to establish the actual number of dead, wounded and forcibly displaced people due to the fact that the occupation forces are continuing their assault on Ukraine. Russia’s war against Ukraine has already produced over 7.7 million refugees.

·  On October 5, news emerged of the death of a revered historian, archeologist, employee of the Khortytsia National Reserve Viacheslav Zaitsev. He was killed in the Donetsk region defending Ukraine from Russian occupiers. 

·  Find out more in our monitoring of losses among cultural figures.

Russian crimes against media

·  On September 15, Oleh Shemchuk, an investigative journalist from Zaporizhzhia who fought in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, went missing while performing a combat mission near Bakhmut, Donetsk region.

·  On September 21, Dmytro Shypovsky, cameraman for Privat TV: Kharkiv and Al Jazeera, who defended Ukraine in the ranks of the Armed Forces, was killed in Donetsk region. He took part in a number of TV and film projects. He was an active participant in the Revolution of Dignity. 

·  On September 28, the chief of the public affairs service with the 80 Separate Air Assault Brigade, captain Yurii Leliavskyi died fighting with the Russian occupiers. In his civilian life, Yurii was a journalist. He worked for numerous media and national TV channels.

·  In temporarily occupied Kherson, Russians kidnapped three bloggers who had spoken out against the occupiers and supported Ukraine on social media. The occupiers forced them to record themselves «repenting.»

·  Find out more about Russia’s crimes against the media in Ukraine in our report.

Here and Now

“Here-And-Now: Stories of Journalists at War” is a project consisting of stories of those who cover and reflect on Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, who shoot and record stories from the frontline and from the rear, who go live on air from air-raid shelters, alongside those who have enlisted in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. All of these people speak about their personal and professional choices. Read and listen to stories of:

·  Kristina Berdynskykh – a journalist;

·  Andrii Bashtovyi – chief editor of The Village.

Share materials

·  Serhii Plokhy “Russia’s war against Ukraine: Empires don’t die overnight” (Forum for Ukrainian Studies);

·  ‘It Is Not The Right Moment To Try And Understand Russians.’ Sophia Andrukhovych In Dialogue With Orhan Pamuk (The Empty Square);

·  Nataliya Gumenyuk “As the missiles strike Kyiv, of course we are scared – but war has made us practical” (Guardian);

·  Nonna Stefanova “When my 9-year-old asks why Russia is bombing us – this is what I say” (CNN);

·  Hanna Arhirova ‘War crime:’ Industrial-scale destruction of Ukraine culture (AP);

·  ‘Hope matters’: Ukrainian and international authors on why literature is important in times of conflict (Guardian);

·  ‘People need to tell stories’: Lviv holds literary festival in defiance of war (Guardian);

·  Cheltenham Literature Festival joins with the Book Arsenal Festival in Kyiv for a celebration of Ukrainian culture and arts (Gloucestershire Live);

·  Aliide Naylor “Theater In The Bomb Shelter: How The Arts Are Surviving Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine” (RFE/RL)

·  Lyubko Deresh “In the Presence of a Miracle” (Apofenie);

·  Askold Melnyczuk “Bearing witness. Reimagining in poetry the victims of the Babyn Yar massacre” (The Times Literary Supplement);

·  Aneta Kaminska “To Translate the War” (Chytomo);

·  Andrej Kurkow „Wir Ukrainer sind hoch motiviert“ (Die Tageszeitung in German);

·  Andrej Kurkow “Dem Krieg mit schwarzem Humor begegnen” (Edito in German).

Dialogues on war

We continue our conversation series, #DialoguesOnWar, where Ukrainian and foreign intellectuals talk about the experience of the war and share their own observations:

·  Dialogues on War: Iryna Vikyrchak and Pascal Bruckner (video);

·  Dialogues on War: Olena Huseinova and Paweł Pieniążek (video);

·  Dialogues on War: Kateryna Babkina and Askold Melnyczuk (video).

PEN Ukraine webpage on war

Visit our webpage for the latest news and materials on Russia’s war against Ukraine. Here you will find information on the situation in Ukraine, links to important materials and information resources, petitions, addresses, a list of publications about Ukraine to read in English, and books by Ukrainian authors recommended for translation. The page is continuously updated with the latest news and links.