Russian strike on Kharkiv kills 18-year-old artist: Serhiy Zhadan shows her last work. Photo

On August 30, Veronika Kozhushko, a young artist who was only 18 years old, was killed in a Russian attack on Kharkiv with guided bombs. An hour before the tragedy, she sent her last drawing to the writer Serhiy Zhadan.

"Very young, sincere and gifted... The Russians continue to destroy our future. There is no explanation for this. There is no forgiveness either," he wrote on Facebook.

Kozhushko often drew illustrations to lines from the poems of Serhiy Zhadan, a representative of Mykhailo Semenko's Executed Renaissance, and painted portraits of Ukrainian writers on shop windows.

She took an active part in the creative life of Kharkiv. In May, Kozhushko's works could be seen at an exhibition called "Zoriani Sady" (Starry Gardens).

On her Instagram page, the artist published crowdfundings for the Ukrainian military, including the 67th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the 1st Special Forces, the Da Vinci Wolves.

"Veronika Kozhushko gave me this drawing a few weeks ago at the Theater on Podil in Kyiv. We had not met before... Veronika was killed during the shelling of Kharkiv. She was 18," poet Tetiana Vlasova reacted to the tragic news.

"Five strikes on Kharkiv. Lots of messages. And then the most painful thing I hear over the phone stabs me deeply like a knife: Nika is dead. She was 18. She was thin and absolutely beautiful. Every time we crossed paths in the city, I watched her admiringly. Such a ray of light, but at the same time a very strong one," wrote Olena Rybka, deputy editor-in-chief of Vivat Publishing House. She admitted that she could not accept this loss.

As previously reported, on August 30, Russia attacked Kharkiv with guided bombs. As of the morning of August 31, it is known that 97 people were injured in the attack, more than two dozen of them children. At least seven citizens were killed. A 14-year-old girl was among the victims.

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