A male ballet dancer. An award-winning female actress. A biathlete. An actor who used to post glamorous selfies on Instagram to his nearly 13,000 followers until he joined in and uploaded two final shots of himself looking stylish in camouflage.
These are some of the Ukrainian celebrities who have been killed since Russia invaded on February 24. Her death adds an extra dimension to the country’s shock and fear at the war.
Artem Datshin, one of Ukraine’s leading dancers and former principal dancer of the National Opera of Ukraine, died in a hospital in the capital Kyiv on Thursday. According to posts by two friends on social media, he was wounded by Russian artillery fire last month.
Datshin was a previous winner of the prestigious Serge Lifar Prize, named after a Ukrainian considered one of the most important ballet dancers and choreographers of the 20th century.
“I cannot express my sorrow,” Tatiana Borovik said on Facebook in a post announcing the date of Datshin’s funeral.
Ukrainian actor Oksana Shvets was killed in a rocket attack on the capital, the Kyiv Post newspaper reported on Thursday. Shvets was a member of the city’s Young Theater and had won the Honored Artist of Ukraine award in 1996. A photo on the theater’s website shows her in costume on stage.
The war is narrowing the distance between famous and ordinary Ukrainians because so many non-celebrities are making heroic sacrifices, said Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of Ukraine’s Civil Liberties Center. It has also caused many people to focus on matters of life and death that eclipses the focus on fame.
“Prominent people are not using their privileged status to flee, but to stand with the whole nation at this dramatic time,” Matviichuk said, although she added that the killing of children shocked her most about the war.
The International Biathlon Union mourned the loss of 19-year-old athlete Yevhen Malyshev. A March 2 Twitter post said he died while serving in the military. Biathlon is a sport that combines cross-country skiing and air rifle shooting.
Pasha Lee, an actor from Crimea, was killed in Irpin on Sunday, local journalists and the Odessa International Film Festival reported. The city, 15 miles northwest of Kyiv, has seen intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
Lee, 33, has worked in theater and cinema. He was also a TV presenter, singer and composer.
Before the war, his Instagram feed reflected a glamorous lifestyle. One picture showed him on a yacht, another diving, and a third in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Lee joined Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces when the war began.
On March 1, he was pictured seated at a table in army fatigues and a beret. In his latest March 4 Instagram post, he’s back in riot gear, this time sitting next to a woman also in uniform. The caption says they were bombed, adding that “we’re smiling because we’re going to make it”.
He died in shelling two days later.
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