“Ukrainian Culture Makers Killed by Russia” is an online platform dedicated to remembering the people creating Ukraine’s culture, who have been killed during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This initiative was launched by a group of state institutions and NGOs with particular experience in memorialisation, human rights and advocacy. Its purpose is to keep a record of the names of Ukrainian culture makers whose creative lives have been cut short by Russia since 2022.
The project is a joint effort of the following organisations: PEN Ukraine, INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Exchange, Ukraine Memorial Platform, Raphael Lemkin Society, Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Human Rights Centre ZMINA, HeMo: Ukrainian Heritage Monitoring Lab, KSE Human Rights and War Memorialisation Centre.
One of the project’s aims is to publicize these cases and use international advocacy to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice. Project organizers also wish to prolong the artistic legacy and work of those Ukrainian culture makers killed by Russia through commemorative events and publications in books or other media.
“This is a combined effort by civic and state institutions to facilitate the work of human rights defenders, journalists, diplomats and politicians from Ukraine and abroad in sharing the stories and records we have collected, and advocating for Ukraine by telling the world about the talented Ukrainians whose lives were taken by Russia, about their legacies, and about the genocidal war Russia is waging against us, our culture, and our identity,” say the project’s creators.
Their institutions have joined forces to keep monitoring the losses of Ukrainian culture makers, which PEN Ukraine began in 2022: https://pen.org.ua/loss-monitoring.
As of February 16, 2025, the platform has recorded 183 Ukrainian culture makers killed by Russia. However, project organizers acknowledge that their monitoring is not official or exhaustive and that many more Russian war crimes will come to light later. Therefore, they will appreciate new information via email: killedculturemakers@gmail.com.
“Culture makers,” in the context of this project, includes everyone who was making a contribution to the development of Ukrainian culture, for instance: published authors; people building Ukrainian cultural institutions; anyone working professionally in the various arts or other cultural professions; as well as people whose creative endeavours impacted their local communities.
At present, this effort to track the losses of Ukrainian cultural figures is limited to the years of Russia’s full-scale invasion, as the number of cases continues to grow. This initiative is focused on recording information in real time in as much detail as possible. However, the organizers are also looking for means to expand the monitoring project to cover the entire period of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which began in 2014.
Ukrainian journalist and communications manager Diana Deliurman is the coordinator of the online project “Ukrainian Culture Makers Killed by Russia.”
For more details about the project, please see the website “Ukrainian Culture Makers Killed by Russia.”
