Ukrainian poet and writer Volodymyr Vakulenko was murdered after being kidnapped by Russian invaders. This became public on November 28, after DNA verification. His body was found in a grave in the Izium woods. According to the police, Russian occupiers shot the writer using a 9-mm Makarov pistol.

The case of Volodymyr Vakulenko

Children’s writer and poet Volodymyr Vakulenko was kidnapped by Russian occupiers on March 24. The occupiers shoved him into the bus marked with a Z-sign and took off in the direction of Izium. None of Vakulenko’s relatives had seen him or heard from him since. Before the detention Volodymyr Vakulenko decided to bury his war diary under a cherry tree in the garden, fully aware that the occupiers will come after him. After the deoccupation of Izium, the writer’s diary was transferred to the Kharkiv Literary Museum. Vakulenko survived by his parents and a son diagnosed with autism.

What’s going on?

• Over the past nine months, Russia has launched more than 16,000 missile attacks on Ukraine. 97% of Russian targets are civilian. Russian shelling of civil infrastructure result in lasting blackouts. Sometimes it takes several days to restore electricity to Ukrainian cities, many of which stay without electricity, water, heating, and telecommunications for many hours.
• In November, the Ukrainian Armed Forces liberated Kherson and parts of the Kherson region. This was preceded by mass lootings of Kherson museums and libraries by Russian occupiers. Russian soldiers looted 15,000 objects from the Oleksiy Shovkunenko Kherson Art Museum along with the Kherson Regional Museum and other cultural venues. It was established that the Kherson Art Museumʼs collection was taken to the Simferopol Museum of Local Lore in occupied Crimea. The Russian occupiers also stole very valuable stock from the Kherson Regional Library named after a writer Oles Honchar.

Losses

• The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has recorded 17,023 civilian casualties in Ukraine since February 24. At least 441 children were killed, 852 were injured. 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 7.8 million refugees.
• On November 17, the news emerged that Kyiv tour guide, activist, author of the «Vanishing Kyiv» blog, and restorer of antique doors Serhiy Myronov was killed on the front line. At the start of the full-scale invasion, Serhiy went to defend Kyiv in the ranks of the 241st territorial defense brigade.
• On November 22, the news emerged of the death of Vadym Khlupianets, a ballet dancer with the Kyiv Operetta Theater, who joined Ukraine’s Armed Forces. He was killed in a battle with Russian invaders near Bakhmut (Donetsk region).
• Find out more in our monitoring of losses among cultural figures.

Russian crimes against media

• In nine months of the full-scale war, Russia has committed 462 crimes against journalists and media in Ukraine. The Russian troops in Ukraine have killed 42 journalists in total. Of those, eight journalists were killed in the course of their work (three Ukrainians and five foreign citizens). 34 have died as combatants or were killed by Russian shelling, not while carrying out their journalistic duties.
• On November 24, Crimean civic journalists Ruslan Suleymanov, Rustem Sheikhaliev and Osman Arifmemetov were sentenced to 14 years in prison by the Russian Southern District Military Court of Rostov-on-Don. The “court” found them guilty of “terrorism” and the “attempted seizure of power”.
• Find out more about Russia’s crimes against the media in Ukraine in our report.

Share materials

• Holding a Gun. An exchange of letters between Reginald Dwayne Betts and Serhiy Zhadan (PEN Ukraine);
• ‘United, we are invincible’: Anne Applebaum, Margaret MacMillan, and Peter Pomerantsev wrote letters of solidarity to Server Mustafayev (PEN Ukraine);
• Four Ukrainian Writers on Literature, Solidarity, and the Future of Justice (Literary Hub);
• Poetry After Bucha: Serhiy Zhadan on Ukraine, Russia, and the Demands War Makes of Language (Literary Hub);
• Myroslava Barchuk “Even when I find out that tomorrow is the end of the world…” (Craft);
• Andrey Kurkov “Ukraine is a very democratic country with a good pinch of anarchy” (Big Issue);
• How Ukrainians Are Protecting Their Centuries-Old Culture From Putin’s Invasion (Bloomberg);
• Olesya Khromeychuk “Putin Says Ukraine Doesn’t Exist. That’s Why He’s Trying to Destroy It” (The New York Times);
• Adrian Bonenberger “Under fire from Russia, Ukrainian morale remains high” (The Boston Globe);
• Mykhaylo Palinchak “Sirens’ Whisper: Photo Testimony about Russia’s War Against Ukraine” (PEN/Opp);
• Nataliya Teramae “The Shell of a Snail” (PEN Finland);
• Andrej Kurkow “Warum haben die Ukrainer keine Angst?” (Süddeutsche Zeitung in German);
• Karen Krüger “Die Angst vor dem Winter” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in German);
• Tetyana Ogarkova « On voit plus clair dans le noir » (L’Obs in French);
• Hałyna Kruk “Wojna i zbrodnia musi być nazwana” (Polskie Radio in Polish);
• Reportage di guerra e di emozioni: il tour di tre poete ucraine in Italia (Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa in Italian).

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: Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta and Dan Ariely (December 8, 6 PM Kyiv time);
• Dialogues on War: Sofia Cheliak and Margaret MacMillan (December 15, 6 PM Kyiv time);
• Dialogues on War: Nataliya Gumenyuk and Sławomir Sierakowski (video);
• Dialogues on War: Katrin Eigendorf and Oleksandr Zinchenko (text);
• Dialogues on War: Paweł Pieniążek and Oleina Huseinova (text);
• Dialogues on War: Askold Melnyczuk and Kateryna Babkina (text);
• Melinda Haring: Ukraine and America – where we feel the impact of the war (text);
• Dialogues on War: Nataliya Gumenyuk and Sławomir Sierakowski (text);
• Dialogues on War: Tetyana Ogarkova and Sylvie Kauffmann (text).

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.