Russian missiles and drones strike Ukrainian peaceful cities at night, killing people while they are sleeping. They destroy critical civilian infrastructure and endanger nuclear power plants.

Whats going on?

• Ukraine’s counteroffensive continues on the Southern and Eastern fronts. Ukrainian soldiers need more Western weapons, including fighter jets, to speed up their counteroffensive against Russian forces. Every day of delay costs Ukraine the lives of its people: soldiers, civilians, rescuers, journalists, writers, people of culture.
• Russia has started striking the energy infrastructure of Ukraine again. Some energy facilities in Ukraine’s centre and west were damaged during a large-scale Russian missile attack on the morning of September 21. This was the first Russian attack on the country’s energy system in the last six months.
• According to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, 1624 objects of cultural infrastructure have been damaged, as of August 29, 2023. Among them are creative hubs, libraries, museums and galleries, theatres and philharmonic halls, institutions of art education etc. Nearly a third (591 objects) have been destroyed. The most significant losses and damages to cultural infrastructure have been experienced in Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk regions.

Losses

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has recorded at least 27,149 civilian casualties in Ukraine since February 24, 2022. 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.

• On August 11, mime artist and pyrotechnic performer Dmytro Buival was killed on the Kharkiv front. He was the founder of Voice of the Streets, a public organisation, and a creative workshop, and he organised the Kharytonenko Fest Street Art Festival. He also had a unique technique for creating costumes. Dmytro signed up for military service in June 2022.
• On August 17, Ukrainian theatre and film actor Oleksii Khilskyi was killed while performing a combat mission on the Zaporizhzhia front. Oleksii is known for his roles in a TV series. He joined the army in the beginning of the full-scale war, was wounded twice, but returned to the front again. 
• A Ukrainian historian, religious scholar, member of the Executive Board of PEN Ukraine and former prisoner of the so-called «Donetsk People’s Republic» Ihor Kozlovsky died on September 6. Kozlovsky was a world-renowned figure and specialist in religious studies and spiritual systems. He spent 700 days in captivity in occupied Donetsk from January 2016 until December 2017.

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

Russias crimes against media

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Russia has killed 66 Ukrainian and foreign journalists and committed 529 crimes against journalists and media in Ukraine.  

• Every year on September 16, PEN Ukraine commemorates all murdered journalists in Ukraine. This date is the anniversary of the murder of George Gongadze. Gongadze was the founder of Ukrainska Pravda, the main online newspaper in Ukraine. 23 years ago, on the night of 16-17 September George Gongadze was abducted by law enforcement officers in the centre of Kyiv and later brutally murdered. 
• PEN Ukraine continues presenting the photo exhibition The War Is Not Over Yet, which aims to tell the story of journalists who have been killed, injured, come under fire, captured or persecuted since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Since March 2022, the exhibition about Russia’s crimes against the media in Ukraine has presented in 9 Ukrainian cities. Now the exhibition is in Kyiv. We are looking for a possibility to present the exhibition abroad.

Find out more about journalists and media workers who died in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s full-scale war.

Volodymyr Vakulenko’s last book

In June 2023, the last book of Volodymyr Vakulenko – his war diary and collection of poems “I Am Transforming… A Diary of Occupation” was released. This diary is an important provement of Russia’s war crimes in occupied territories of Ukraine. The publication was initiated by PEN Ukraine, Vivat Publishing House, and the Kharkiv Literary Museum with support from the International Renaissance Fund. Now we are looking for translators and publishers to release this book abroad.
Ukrainian children’s writer and poet Volodymyr Vakulenko was murdered after being kidnapped by Russian invaders in Izium (Kharkiv region) on March 24, 2022. A day before his abduction, Volodymyr buried the diary under a cherry tree in the garden. After the liberation of the village, Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina found the diary. Later she was killed by Russian rocket in Kramatorsk. 

In solidarity with Ukraine

PEN Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute launched the program of foreign authors’, journalists’, and cultural activists’ visits to Ukraine. In September within the framework of ‘In Solidarity with Ukraine’ we hosted a delegation from Italy, which included Francesco Chiamulera, Nona Mikhelidze, Paola Peduzzi, Christian Rocca and Davide Maria De Luca. After visiting Ukraine, the representatives of the Italian delegation have already published more than 20 articles in Italian media. In the next months we are waiting for guests from France, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Insight UA

Insight UA is a guide to discovering Ukrainian culture, personalities, and awe-inspiring events. It is curated and hand-picked by the Ukrainian Institute team. The platform covers various cultural topics: music, literature, theatre, film, visual arts, Crimea, and analytical reports. Everyone can choose a format to explore – through a selection of Ukrainian cinema, exhibitions, and books, listening to playlists, signing up for one of the online courses, or simply navigating through different articles and discovering something new. Visit Insight UA web page and discover Ukraine with ease.

Lviv Media Forum

On May 25-27, 2023, PEN Ukraine took part in the IX Lviv Media Forum, the largest media event in Ukraine, which brought together 50 speakers and 420 participants from all over the world in one of the bomb shelters of Lviv. Here you can find a study of Russian narratives in Western media recently issued by the Lviv Media Forum team in your preferred language.

Share materials

• Victoria Amelina «The Shell Hole in the Fairy Tale» (London Ukrainian Review);
• Sasha Dovzhyk «Ukraine, the Land of the Future» (London Ukrainian Review);
• Sasha Dovzhyk “How the Light Gets in. Remembering Victoria Amelina” (London Ukrainian Review);
• Sofia Chelyak «Girl Talk. Remembering Victoria Amelina» (London Ukrainian Review);
• Artem Chekh «Dispatches» (London Ukrainian Review);
• “Civil society is a key driver of reforms and democratic changes in Ukraine” (Swedish Institute);
• Yaroslav Hrytsak «The war in Ukraine has become a turning point in the history of civilization» (Odesa Journal);
• Timothy Garton Ash «Putin, Pushkin and the decline of the Russian empire» (Financial Times);
• Romana Romanyshyn, Andriy Lesiv «From centuries past to present: “Treasures of Ukraine” chronicles the resilience of a nation’s culture» (Chytomo);
• Lydialyle Gibson «The Return of History. Ukrainian scholar Serhii Plokhy on the war in his home country» (Harvard Magazine);
• Sofiia Dobko «Writing the War in Ukraine» (University of Notre Dame);
• Silke Brandt «Niemals ist etwas Schreckliches geschehen» (Die Veranda in German);
• Il racconto dello scrittore in trincea: “A Bakhmut ero sicuro di morire. Invece ho capito perché combattiamo” (La Repubblica in Italian);
• Entretien avec le romancier russophone le plus traduit d’Ukraine : Andrei Kurkov (Aleteia in French).

PEN Ukraine web page 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.