Veronika Kozhushko, an 18-year-old artist, was among seven people killed on 30 August by a Russian guided bomb attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city and a cultural centre.
Her father, Ihor Kozhushko, said she was struck in a park, 50 meters from the epicentre of the explosion, the Ukrinform news agency reported. She died in a hospital of her injuries. Her death underscored the toll of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on the young generation of cultural figures.
Kozhushko knew Serhiy Zhadan, a prominent Ukrainian writer who lived in Kharkiv for years and is now serving in the National Guard of Ukraine. In a Facebook post on 31 August, he described her as “very young, sincere and gifted". He wrote: “An hour before her death, she sent her new drawing. That is, her last drawing. The Russians continue to destroy our future. There is no explanation for this. And there is no forgiveness either.”
Veronika Kozhushko's drawing sent to the Ukrainian writer Serhiy Zhadan Image: Serhiy Zhadan/Facebook
Kozhushko, who was also a poet, drew inspiration artists and writers from the 1920s and 30s known as the Executed Renaissance, many of whom were from Kharkiv and were executed during Stalin’s reign of terror.
Pen Ukraine has compiled a list of 122 Ukrainian cultural figures killed since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
In a new loss following Russia’s attack on Wednesday on Lviv in western Ukraine, a mother and her three daughters were killed, including the eldest daughter, Daria Bazylevych, who had planned to devote her life to Ukrainian culture. The Ukrainian Catholic University, where she was a student, quoted from her scholarship application in a post about her death.
“I am interested in the culture and history of my country, and in the future I want to develop the culture of Ukraine and tell the whole world about it,” she wrote. “This passion arose in me thanks to my family, who always shared with me stories about the trials our ancestors went through as a result of the World Wars, the Holodomor, and the Soviet Union.”
“All of Daria's plans and dreams were killed by Russia,” the university concluded in its post. “We call on the world to stop the Russian terrorist state.”