Exactly one year ago Russia launched its full-scale genocidal war against Ukraine. This invasion is a continuation of the hybrid war Russia has been waging against Ukraine since 2014. On the anniversary of the full-scale Russia’s invasion PEN Ukraine continues to work from Kyiv. We are very grateful to every author in the world who supported us, wrote about Ukraine, helped our writers or came to Ukraine personally.

What’s going on?

• Russia is intentionally destroying Ukraine’s cultural heritage. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, 1,189 objects of cultural heritage have been destroyed or seriously damaged by the Russian army. Museums and galleries, libraries and churches, monuments and memorials preserve our culture and historical memory, which are elements of our nationhood. Therefore, any attack on any such object brings far more damage than just financial losses. Destruction of cultural heritage targets our Ukrainian identity, which is one of the main aims of the Russian war against Ukraine.
• Daily Russian attacks destroy not only institutions aimed at protecting our cultural heritage. Many prominent cultural figures who had been creating cultural artefacts for our future generations have perished in this war either as innocent civilian victims or as members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Actors, filmmakers, artists, writers, historians, librarians, and musicians could not remain indifferent to Russian brutality and prioritised their duty to protect their country over their work in the cultural sphere.
• Writers, reporters, and photographers have become a central target for the Kremlin in its war against Ukraine. Russian troops have bombarded Ukrainian cell towers, shelled vehicles emblazoned with PRESS signage, and murdered, wounded, and robbed members of the media. In the occupied territories, entire media outlets have been silenced and transformed into Russian propaganda mouthpieces. Over a year of unrestrained military aggression, Russians have killed 48 Ukrainian and foreign journalists.

Save Ukrainian libraries

As a result of Russian military aggression, at least 479 libraries have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Books in Ukrainian language, written by Ukrainian authors are systematically withdrawn from the libraries in occupied territories. PEN Ukraine, with support of donors, brings books in Ukrainian and English to the libraries in liberated regions. We have already supported libraries in the Mykolaiv, Kherson, Chernihiv, Sumy regions. If you want to support Ukrainian libraries, please contact us at: ukraine.pen@gmail.com. 

Losses

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has recorded at least 21,300 civilian casualties in Ukraine since February 24, 2022. It is impossible to establish the actual number of the 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 8 million refugees.

• On January 24, Oleh Sobchenko, a well-known historian, public figure, ATO veteran, air reconnaissance officer of the 72nd mechanised brigade named after the Chorni Zaporozhtsi, was killed in battle with the Russian occupiers in Vuhledar (Donetsk Region). He was fond of history and was involved in the restoration of memorials and graves of the officers of the Ukrainian People’s Army (the UNR Army).
• On February 2, archaeologist, deputy director of the historical and cultural reserve “Davniy Plisnesk” Andrii Fylypchuk was killed in a battle with the enemy near Kreminna (Luhansk region).

Russia’s crimes against media

In the year that has passed since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia committed 497 crimes against journalists and media in Ukraine. 

• On January 28, journalist, author, restaurateur Ihor Teryokhin was killed in action. From the first days of the full-scale invasion, he defended Ukraine from the Russian invaders.
• On February 5, Pavlo Tymoshenko, a cameraman for the Cherkasy branch of «Inter» who enlisted to defend Ukraine with the beginning of the full-scale war, was killed near Vuhledar (Donetsk oblast).
• On February 5, Serhiy Klymenko, who worked at «Suspilne Kherson», was killed in a battle with the Russian occupiers in Maryinka (Donetsk oblast).
• On February 9, Oleksiy Borys, a soldier of the 58th Brigade and a journalist of the «Yurydychna Hazeta» newspaper, was killed in action.
• On February 21, Kyiv bid farewell to the host of TV channel «Kyiv», Andriy Zahoruyko, a serviceman who was killed in action near Bakhmut (Donetsk region) in the fall of 2022.

Visits of solidarity

In February PEN Ukraine hosted writers and journalists from Italy and Great Britain. Delegations have visited liberated cities of the Kyiv region: Bucha, Irpin, Borodyanka, which were under Russian occupation in February-March. We invite all PEN centres to visit Ukraine as an act of solidarity with us in wartime. We will be happy to help you to organise your visit.

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:

• Eugene Malolietka – photographer with the Associated Press.
• Vira Kuryko – reporter.
• Maksym Skubenko – former head of Vox Ukraine, now chief sergeant of an assault platoon.
• Azad Safarov – chief producer of Sky News in Ukraine.

Share materials

• Ukraine: A year of war crimes and resolve (PEN International);
• Volodymyr Yermolenko “Ukraine’s resilience and why it continues to fight” (Chatham House);
• Helen Fitzwilliam «Meet the artists, writers and musicians defending Ukraine» (Chatham House);
• Culture Fights Back: Ukrainian Artists At War (Ukrainian Institute);
• Anne Applebaum, Nataliya Gumenyuk ‘They Didn’t Understand Anything, But Just Spoiled People’s Lives’ (The Atlantic);
• Timothy Garton Ash “The need for speed in Ukraine: the West must be bold” (The Spectator);
• Jen Stout “Hunting for Vakulenko” (New Humanist);
• Ewa Thompson “Imperialism in Russian Literature” (RevDem);
• Elif Batuman “Rereading Russian Classics in the Shadow of the Ukraine War” (New Yorker);
• Anastasiia Malenko “Ukrainian filmmakers center resilience, horrors of war at Sundance Film Festival” (Kyiv Independent);
• Svitlana Oslavska “Inside the Basement Where an Entire Ukrainian Village Spent a Harrowing Month in Captivity” (Time);
• Charlotte Higgins ‘I too was an orangutan in a zoo’: Russia’s bizarre propaganda in Ukraine (Guardian);
• Laura King “After a year of war, six Ukrainians share how their lives have changed” (Yahoo);
• Kherson, a city on the frontline (UkraineWorld);
• Mykolaiv. 9 Months Under Russian Shelling (UkraineWorld);
• Iya Kiva “The Dead Flowers of Forgetting” (Poetry School);
• Interview Wolodymyr Jermolenko, Präsident des ukrainischen PEN-Clubs (in German);
• Paolo Giordano «Come le more selvatiche»: in Ucraina, tra dolore e resistenza (Corriere della Sera in Italian);
• Ola Hnatiuk «Ta wojna trwa już 300 lat. A teraz w twarz Putinowi wybuchło społeczeństwo obywatelskie Ukrainy» (OKO.press in Polish);
• Andrij Lubka: pisarz, który niczego nie pisze, to jeden z symboli tej wojny (Tygodnik Powszechny in Polish).

Russia’s War Crimes Reports

• Ukrainian Culture Under Attack: Erasure of Ukrainian Culture in Russia’s War Against Ukraine – joint report of PEN America and PEN Ukraine on war of Russia against Ukraine and erasure of Ukrainian culture.
• Media, Culture, Civil Society: Victims of Russia’s Crimes in Ukraine – PEN Ukraine’s monitoring of Russia’s crimes in cultural and informational spheres.

Ukraine! Unmuted

A series of texts created specifically for the essay book UKRAINE! UNMUTED, which was published as part of the 5th triennial of contemporary Ukrainian art «Ukrainian Cross-Section» with the same-name UKRAINE! UNMUTED theme. Compiled and edited by Oksana Forostyna:

• Mykola Riabchuk. Mapping a ‘Nowhere Nation’.
• Vitaly Portnykov. A Reunion.
• Kateryna Botanova. A Blanket of Snow.
• Diana Klochko. Ukrainian Avant-Garde and Folk Art.
• Taras Lyuty. Scribes of Kyiv Conquer Muscovy.
• Jurko Prochasko. Under the upper layers.

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: Oksana Rozumna (Kutsenko) and Peter Godwin (on February 25, 4 PM Kyiv time);
• Dialogues on War: Julia Musakovska and Dave Eggers (video);
• Dialogues on War: Oksana Lutsyshyna and Arundhati Roy (video);
• Dialogues on War: Maria Tomak and Christina Lamb (video).
• Dialogues on War: Maria Tomak and Christina Lamb (text).
• Artem Chapeye “We Become What We Do” (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.