One year ago Ukrainian defenders liberated Kherson. A week before Ukrainian troops entered the city, the Russians finished removing artists’ works from the city’s museums. 

Whats going on?

·  From October 31 to November 4, 2022, more than 10,000 works of art were stolen from the Kherson Art Museum. Kherson Regional Local History Museum had over 180,000 exhibits, and almost everything was taken out when Russians were leaving the city.

·  1,711 objects of cultural infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed due to Russian aggression in Ukraine, according to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy. Among them are 844 houses of culture, 603 libraries, 133 art education institutions, 100 museums and galleries, 31 theaters, cinemas and philharmonics. 

·  Russia forcibly sent at least 8,330 Ukrainian children to so-called «re-education camps» this year for the purposes of political indoctrination and militarization. These facilities, posing as «rehabilitation institutions,» are part of Moscow’s strategy to eradicate Ukrainian identity and turn Ukrainian children against their own homeland. Attempts at re-educating and indoctrinating Ukrainian children have a clear genocidal character.

Losses

·  On October 27, Ukrainian musician, drummer of the rock band “Sertsevyi napad” (“Heart Attack”) Mykhailo «Michael» Balakhtar died on the front. The musician joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

·  On November 6, the death of Maksym Petrenko, a Ukrainian novelist who was serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was confirmed. Petrenko had been missing since last summer, and his family initially thought he was in captivity, but his death was confirmed recently through DNA testing.

·  On November 8, the death of distributor of literature at the publishing house «Ukrainian Priority» and traveller Valentyn Dobryi was cinfirmed. Since the beginning of full-scale war, he volunteered for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

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 69 Ukrainian and foreign journalists and committed 540 crimes against journalists and media in Ukraine.  

·  On November 3, Taras Davydiuk, a soldier, founder, and editor-in-chief of the Rivne outlet «Horyn.info», was killed in action on the outskirts of Robotyne (Zaporizhzhia region). At the start of the full-scale war, Taras went to the front line. In recent months, he fought in the 14th separate regiment together with his Harpoon comrades.

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

Regional meeting of PEN Centres

On October 22-25, the VII Regional Meeting of PEN Centers, took place in Kyiv. The pool of participants of the meeting included representatives of PEN Berlin, PEN Bosnia and Herzegovina, PEN Denmark, PEN Finland, PEN Montenegro, PEN Norway, and PEN Sweden. During their visit to Ukraine, the participants met the representatives of human rights and cultural organizations and visited localities in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, where they saw firsthand the consequences of the Russian army’s aggression during occupation in 2022. The program of the VII Regional Meeting of PEN Centers also included two discussions dedicated to the topic of Europe and the war.

·  Ukraine must win: Resolution of the VII Regional Meeting of PEN Centres;

·  Me and Other (public discussion);

·  Rise of the New North (public discussion).

In solidarity with Ukraine

On October 30 – November 3, PEN Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute have hosted the delegation of writers and cultural activists from France, Belgium, and Latvia. The participants are expected to become ambassadors of Ukraine abroad, creating materials for the international media and launching projects of support. Throughout the week the delegation met the representatives of Ukrainian cultural and human rights organizations, servicepeople, journalists and artists, and got acquainted with social and cultural context of the country. The delegates also got acquainted with Kharkiv, its history and architecture, and saw firsthand the consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine. By the end of the year, the Ukrainian Institute and PEN Ukraine are going to host two more delegations – from Spain and Netherlands.

Share materials

·  Mykola Riabtchouk «Ukraine’s War and Challenges of Decolonization» (Desk Russie);

·  Vitalii Portnykov «Someone else’s war no longer exists in the modern world» (n-ost);

·  Serhii Plokhy «The trains are still running in Ukraine—unlike the west’s planes» (Prospect);

·  Oleksandra Matviichuk «The ordinary people doing extraordinary things in Ukraine» (TEDx);

·  Stanislav Aseyev «In remembrance of a great mind who survived Russian captivity» (Kyiv Independent);

·  Olena Stiazhkina speaks on life amid the war (Yale Daily News);

·  Alexander J. Motyl «The Inevitable Fall of Putin’s New Russian Empire» (Foreign Policy);

·  “No David and Goliath, just consistent genocide of Ukrainians”: writers reflect on Russia’s war (Euromaidan Press);

·  Sasha Dovzhyk «I’m a Ukrainian, and I Refuse to Compete for Your Attention» (New York Times);

·  Charlotte Higgins “Love, grieving, intimacy and enduring war: what is the role now for books and writers in Ukraine?” (Guardian);

·  Volodymyr Yermolenko «La humanidad del cuidado» (El Espectador in Spanish);

·  Volodymyr Yermolenko «Cartas de Ucrania: la humanidad del cuidado» (Clarin in Spanish);

·  Iryna Slavinska «Cómo la cultura ucraniana resiste la agresión rusa» (El Espanol in Spanish);

·  Olivier Weber «Ukraine : des écrivains en tournée dans les villes en guerre» (Actualitte in French);

·  Sophie Sumburane «Freiheit des Wortes» (TAZ in German);

·  Sophie Sumburane «Eine Stadt im Krieg – Kiew im Oktober 2023» (Sophie Sumburane in German);

·  Adéla Knapová «Most přes řeku Irpiň se stal symbolem utrpení ukrajinských civilistů. Vedle zničeného už ale stojí nový» (Reflex in Czech).

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.