Artists also die in war. How many? No one knows. Because no one knows the actual losses on either side. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that at least a dozen prominent Ukrainian artists have died during the two years and three months of full-scale war. When Maksym Krywcow fell on the front line in January, the literary world in Poland froze because his debut book was just about to be published in Polish. The poet’s death was announced by Aneta Kamińska, his translator, a Polish poet, and author of, among others, ‘A Room with a View of the War.’ Yesterday brought another disturbing news for the literary and musical world. In line with his previous announcements, the poet Serhij Zhadan joined the military. But this text is not about him this time.
- Mykhailo has swapped his violin for a drone controller. Denys, instead of theatrical props, now holds a rifle. Artem has abandoned his DJ console for tools to repair frontline vehicles,” says volunteer Aldona Hartwińska.
- “I remember Borys. I set myself a sadhana to remember him. So, I remember that he didn’t want to talk about poems anymore when the total war started” – says Polish poet Radek Wiśniewski – “He claimed it was the end of Poetry.”
- “As for the number of the fallen… There are days when you see nothing but obituaries. One obituary follows another. It’s hard to count them. Sometimes, there are dozens a day, and that’s still not everyone. Even in the worst weeks of the defense of Bakhmut, there weren’t as many obituaries as there are now,” describes Wiesław Habowski, who collects this data.
Poetry, opera, ballet – they die in war
On January 7, 2022, the day Maksym Krywcow died, Aneta Kamińska translated his last poem. It was written two days before the poet’s death. Here is an excerpt:
This poem is such… as if Krywcow had foreseen his death. Perhaps this specific sensitivity shapes artists, who are often found by war in the bloom or at the best moment of their careers? Krywcow became a symbol, though he was not the first ‘culture man’ to die on the front defending his homeland. For example, in September 2022, a ballet dancer associated with the National Opera in Kyiv, Oleksandr Shapoval, was killed during a mortar shelling in the Donetsk region.
But Ukrainian artists have died in the war not only on the front. For instance, at the very beginning of Russia’s full-scale aggression in Ukraine, Artem Datsyshyn, a ballet soloist of the National Opera of Ukraine, was killed during the shelling of the capital. In March, during an attack on Kyiv, his fate was shared by a theater and television actress, Oksana Shvets.
Mariupol, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv
The compilation of these needless deaths was prepared some time ago by the Center for Cultural Aid in Ukraine.
The most poignant part concerns the youngest artists: “The terrible war in Ukraine has not given a chance for life to already over 200 children. Among them were the youngest talents of the Mariupol Concept Theater – Yelizaveta Ochkur and Sonya Amelchikova, who played the main role of Lucy in the play ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’ based on ‘The Chronicles of Narnia.’ Cheerful, charming, incredibly talented. The theater director remembers one of the theater art lessons, where what touched him the most was what they said about an old fir tree: ‘It suffers from piercing cold, provides us with firewood, is proud and beautiful, though very old, deserves respect. One day, we too will grow old with you…’.
Aldona Hartwinska, who supports artists fighting on the Zaporizhzhia front, says: Mykhailo has swapped his violin for a drone controller. Denys, instead of theatrical props, now holds a rifle. Artem has abandoned his DJ console for tools to repair frontline vehicles. Perhaps this discrepancy between the worlds they live in makes one wonder what they are doing there? It is because those on the front are primarily volunteers, so-called dobrovoltsy. What drove them there? What will remain of the artistic soul after the war?
We asked Radek Wiśniewski, a poet, writer, and UA Future Foundation Board member, about this. He has been describing the full-scale war in Ukraine since the conflict began in 2014 and, during this time, has paid much attention, among other things, to artists in war.
– I remember about Borys. I set myself a sadhana to remember him. So, I remember that he didn’t want to talk about poems anymore when the total war started – Radek Wiśniewski tells PostPravda.Info in an interview. – He claimed that it was the end of Poetry. He still wrote poems in Donbas from 2014 to 2015. And then he said that now he’s just going to kill – he adds.
The latest photos from social media of Borys, mentioned by Radek Wiśniewski, are from around Christmas 2022, near Bakhmut. Then, news of Borys disappeared. Wiśniewski remembers that over the past ten years, Borys often vanished from the radar screens, as it happens in war, and then, for example, like in 2016, he would suddenly appear in Poland to read his ‘War Poems.’ We are talking about Borys Humeniuk – a poet, painter, and soldier. To keep his memory alive, Radek Wiśniewski writes him letters. This is the form that the posts dedicated to this particular artist have taken.
Six years ago, Borys came to Poland to read his poems written in the trenches of Donbas. We imagined God knows what; maybe that the ‘War Poems’ we published would make some breakthroughs in our consciousness. Not just literary, but broadly speaking – in thinking about Ukraine, Ukrainians. What we published were, in fact, not poems, or rather, they were only so in name. Dry, versified notes written under shelling near the village of Piaski close to the Donetsk civil airport, devastated by tens of hours of bombardments and close combat with so-called separatists, about whom the whole world knew they were not any separatists and that such uniforms, weapons, equipment, communications – cannot be bought in any store.
War Songs in Ukraine
The presence of artists in war takes various forms and will undoubtedly be the subject of many scientific studies in the future, whether in psychology or sociology. The songs that appeared during the two years of full-scale war on the Ukrainian market could fill annual playlists on several radio stations.
Let’s start with the rock band Kozak System, which was already supporting the Ukrainian army in 2014, a time when it was almost totally disintegrated — both financially and mentally. Back then, Kozak System recorded the song ‘Brat za brata’ (Brother for brother) with Enej and Maleo Reggae Rockers, singing about Ukraine’s future in Europe. After Russia attacked Ukraine, the musicians almost immediately started a tour across the EU, playing charity concerts with proceeds going to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. For example, according to the website report.if.ua, during just two concerts in Ivano-Frankivsk in June 2022, the band raised 100,000 hryvnias (about 10,000 Polish zlotys today).
Members of the band Antytila almost immediately joined the territorial defense and returned to the stage after a few months to help the army. They became famous for hits like ‘Bachmut Fortress’ with an incredible music video filmed in the now non-existent city. They also announced a future concert they claimed they would play in the summer of 2024 in Ukrainian Crimea.
However, perhaps the most surprising was Andriy Khlyvnyuk from the band Boombox, who joined the army at the beginning of the Great War. It was he who, in the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on the empty streets of Kyiv, recorded the words of an old Ukrainian song titled ‘Chervona Kalyna’ (‘Red Viburnum’). Eventually, thanks to the collaboration with The Kiffness, the song gained immense popularity, and today, its first verse is known and sung by practically all Ukrainians at home or abroad, from the youngest to the oldest.
After the video was published, The Kiffness reported that the joint performance of ‘Red Viburnum’ brought in $7,000 in royalties in just one day. The artists, of course, donated the money to help Ukraine.
Okean Elzy in the service of the Ukrainian army
From the beginning of the full-scale war, the frontman of Okean Elzy, Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, also carried out his war mission. In early May 2024, he and the band played in Warsaw. ‘We want to interest Europe in Ukraine through culture and music. Everyone knows that art is a delicate weapon but very effective. Therefore, we are happy that we can prepare for the premiere in partnership with Warner. We recorded ten songs, and the first single, “Voices Are Rising,” has already been released (…). Of course, we recorded the songs with Ukrainian fans in mind, but primarily for foreign listeners who have never heard any Ukrainian group. They are unfamiliar with our literature, cinematography, theater, and painting. They would not understand our language, but they might like the music, which hasn’t changed much since the last album. We want to gain new fans, also in Poland. Of course, pop music is unpredictable, but maybe we will help stimulate interest in Ukraine and Ukrainian culture,’ Vakarchuk said in an interview with Jacek Cieślak for ‘Rzeczpospolita,’ when asked about the reason for releasing an English-language album.
At the start of the full-scale aggression, Vakarchuk, who also served one term as a Supreme Council of Ukraine member, traveled around Ukraine with his guitar, playing concerts sometimes for a few, sometimes for several people, even near the front. Meanwhile, the entire Okean Elzy performed phenomenally in the Kyiv metro. During this time, one of the most poignant war songs, ‘City of Maria,’ about Mariupol, was created.
Festivals and Concerts During War
The war of artists also includes stories related to art. I want to share two of them.
The first relates to the Faine Misto festival, the largest music festival in Ukraine originating from Ternopil. In 2022, it took place in Poland, and this year, it will again be held in Ukraine, this time in Lviv. The festival supports the actions of the Azov unit, and the head of security for the festival has almost always been Spider. What does this have to do with anything? Captain Andrij ‘Spider’ Ignatiuk was one of the defenders of Azovstal. He was captured by the Russians and was released as part of a prisoner exchange after several months. This year, he will be one of the guests on the panel opening the event. This event once again aims to sustain and support Azov and to show Ukrainians that their culture, despite the war, does not and will not perish. The UA Future Foundation is collecting money for a car for Spider, as he prepares to return to the front. You can contribute a few zlotys.
The second story I would like to tell you about is that of a blind girl who plays the bandura. She performs in her country, simultaneously raising money to help the Ukrainian military. By March 2024, Anna Maria Herman had raised 2.5 million hryvnias (about 250,000 zlotys today) in this way, performing in places like churches.
We know the fates of many artists fighting in the war, and many we will never learn. These are cases similar to Borys’s story. That is, those who have disappeared. Why? Because neither the Ukrainian side nor the Russian side discloses the actual number of soldiers killed
Nobody saw them, nobody heard about them
The data published daily by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which suggests that within a day, between 500 to 1200 Russian soldiers may have died, should be treated with caution. Information about artists appears sporadically and usually accidentally. Because someone told someone, because someone heard from someone else, and someone else published it somewhere. But at the end of the day, it can be expected that perhaps they will end up like the civilian victims in Mariupol or Volnovakha in the Donetsk region. The scale of casualties is impossible to estimate and count.
Those who are known for sure to have died and can somehow be commemorated are being described by Wiesław Habowski on his Facebook. “The project was created at the beginning of the war; it’s about saying goodbye to each soldier who dies. Are these data complete? It’s hard to say because the goodbyes come from various sources, from military personnel, families, schools, friends, relatives… There is much information about artists and people related to art, theater, or television. It’s hard to say how many actually die, especially since the information arrives at different times. Usually after two or three days, but sometimes even after a month or later – especially if DNA testing is needed for body identification,” says Habowski for PostPravda.Info.
Undoubtedly, the data provided by the Ukrainian authorities are not true. “As for the number of the fallen… There are days when you see nothing but obituaries. One obituary after another. It’s hard to count them. Sometimes, there are dozens a day, and that’s still not everyone. Even in the worst weeks of the defense of Bakhmut, there were not as many obituaries as there are now since the Russians began the offensive. No matter how many researchers there will be and how much work will be done by amateurs, volunteers, and professionals, we will probably never know how many soldiers died during Russia’s full-scale aggression in Ukraine. And by the same token, we will probably never be able to count the fallen artists.
