Four Ukrainian artists posthumously awarded the 3rd Class Order of Merit

Writer Victoria Amelina, poet Maksym Kryvtsov, writer Volodymyr Vakulenko-K., and actor Vasyl Kukharskyi posthumously granted the state order.

The awarding took place on January 22, on the occasion of the Day of Unity of Ukraine.

We shall remind you that writer, member of PEN Ukraine Victoria Amelina joined the human rights organization Truth Hounds in summer 2022. Together with the team, she worked to document war crimes on de-occupied territories in the east, south, and north of Ukraine, particularly in Kapytolivka near Izium where she found the diary of Russian-murdered writer Volodymyr Vakulenko. On June 27, 2023, Victoria was in Kramatorsk with a delegation of Columbian writers and journalists. It was then that Russian occupiers launched a missile attack on the city, with the result that Victoria was heavily wounded. She passed away on July 1.

Writer Volodymyr Vakulenko-K. was abducted from his own home in Kapytolivka near Izium in March 2022. Nothing had been heard from him since then. On November 28, 2022, a DNA expertise confirmed that the body found in the grave №319 in the Izium woods was that of Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Vakulenko.

On December 7, it became known about the death of Vasyl Kukharskyi, theater and film actor. In September, he was heavily wounded during combat operations and had been undergoing rehabilitation. Since 2008, Kukharskyi had been performing at the Drama Theater on Podil. He was known for a part in the movie Maksym Osa.

On January 7, the death of poet and serviceman Maksym Kryvtsov became known. Maksym participated in the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-2014 and voluntarily enlisted in the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2014. Later he worked at the Center for Rehabilitation and Re-Adaptation of the ATO and JFO Veterans and at the Veteran Hub. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Maksym returned to the forefront where he wrote his poetry book, Poems from the Battlement. His poems were also included in anthologies such as BookLove 2.0. Love and War and Amidst the Sirens. New Poetry of the War (2023).