On the 14th day of the Russian war against Ukraine members of the Ukrainian center of PEN International continue fighting on cultural, informational, diplomatic, voluntary and war frontlines. We wrote a letter to the international PEN community describing our gratitude for your solidarity.
What’s going on?
- The Russian army continues to fire on the civilian population of Ukrainian cities such as Kharkiv, Kyiv, Irpin, Mariupol, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and others. Russia does not allow the evacuation of civilians. The occupants continue to bomb residential areas and hospitals thus organizing an artificial humanitarian catastrophe in many cities. People have been living without food, water, light, and heat for several days now, while Russia violates all kinds of world conventions and drops bombs and missiles on people’s heads.
- Dozens of cultural sites have been destroyed in the 13 days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Among them is a museum of a Ukrainian naive artist, a plane listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, cathedrals, theaters, schools, and many other architectural monuments. UNESCO calls Russia to immediately end aggression against Ukraine. As of 7 March Russia damaged 202 schools, 34 hospitals, and more than 1500 residential buildings.
Losses
- Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, at least 52 children have been killed, 76 children have been injured. In total, at least 474 civilians were killed and 861 more were injured. The real numbers could be higher. Only in Mariupol city, which is surrounded by Russians, officials say about 1,300 civilians killed. The war has produced more than 2 million refugees.
- In 13 days of the Russian war against Ukraine 2 journalists have been killed, 10 were injured.
- On 1 March Ukrainian camera operator Yevhenii Sakun was killed in the Russian shelling of the Kyiv TV tower. On 6 March investigative journalist Viktor Dudar was killed on the front line during a battle with Russian troops near the southern city of Mykolaiv. On 6 March famous Ukrainian actor Pasha Lee was killed in the Russian bombardment of Irpin. On 8 March in Sumy, a Russian bomb killed 16-year-old Ukrainian sambo champion Artem Pryimenko.
PEN Ukraine webpage on war
PEN Ukraine launched one page with the latest news and materials on Russia’s war against Ukraine with information on the situation in Ukraine, links on important materials and information resources, petitions, addresses, the list of editions about Ukraine to read in English, and books by Ukrainian authors recommended for translation. The page is being continuously updated with the latest news and links. Go to the page and share with colleagues: war.pen.org.ua.