123 artists killed on battlefield in Ukraine

Ukraine's Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications Mykola Tochytskyi said this, Ukrinform reports.

“This war is really aimed at destroying everything Ukrainian. Ukrainian culture, language, identity. We already have our own shot generation of artists. These are 123 artists who defended our history with arms,” Tochytskyi emphasized.

He added that the issue of preserving the Ukrainian identity, which is part of the great European heritage, is a national security task.

“In general, our colleagues and I clearly understand that this war has serious signs of genocide. And we will do everything to ensure that this is how it is presented in international judicial institutions,” the minister emphasized.

According to him, at meetings with Western partners, they are discussing a strategy on how to not only preserve what is left, but also return the heritage that remains in the occupied territories.

• The war killed opera singer Ihor Voronka, who stood up to defend Ukraine from the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion.
• Mykola Lenok, a musician and harmonica player of the Ukrainian independent theater Wild Theater, died in the war with the Russian occupiers.
• Oleksandr Serdiuk, a vocalist with the Berehynia Theater in Kyiv, who joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces in late April, was killed while performing a combat mission.