8 The word “resilience” was originally used in physics, where it meant the the ability of an elastic material to absorb and release energy as it deforms and springs back into its original shape. Ukrainian resilience was something no one in the world counted on when the invasion started. To continuously rebuild, people need to be resilient. Kherson Museum after Russian troops left the city. ![]() 6 And several projects for saving cultural heritage were initiated in collaboration with large international actors such as UNESCO. Already in March 2022, religious scholars initiated the project “Religion on Fire: Documenting Russia’s War Crimes against Religious Communities in Ukraine.” 5 The Ukrainian branch of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) started documenting cultural objects at risk. In the same manner, since the first weeks of the invasion, professional communities of museum workers, heritage specialists, and curators have done everything possible to save Ukrainian cultural heritage, museum and archival collections, monuments, and architecture. ![]() As Russian missiles continuously ruin Ukrainian infrastructure, Ukraine rebuilds it again, providing water, electricity, and mobility. Rebuilding does not come after the catastrophe, but happens during it. The simultaneity of decomposition and recomposition shows that creation happens in parallel with destruction. Yakimchuk’s own place of birth, Pervomaisk, “has been split into pervo and maisk/ into particles of primeval flux.” Yet her poem demonstrates that even shattered language can create meaning. 4 But the ruination of Ukraine and its culture is not limited to physical places, buildings, or cities. 3 At the time of writing, 553 objects of cultural heritage and cultural institutions have been registered as destroyed in Ukraine as the result of war. 2 The destruction of culture and Ukraine’s cultural heritage is a part of Russia’s attempt to eliminate Ukrainian identity. When Putin and his officials speak about the “de-nazification of Ukraine,” they actually mean de-Ukrainization. Russia targets not only Ukrainian lives and Ukrainian statehood, but also Ukrainian identity. War also brings the ruination of culture. Reparation is a gift to the living, those who can repair and reconstruct their lives and their environments. But the lives of the dead will be never repaired. This is the work of the living to mourn and remember. The human psyche and culture has, however, developed mechanisms to cope with loss. The scale of the devastation of human life is likely to be even greater, but due to the ongoing destruction and inaccessibility of territories under Russian occupation, it is impossible to know the exact numbers of victims, of those who are in those basements or under the rubble. She continues, about Donetsk: “my friends are hostages/ and I can’t reach them/ I can’t do nestk/ to pull them out of the basements/ from under the rubble.” At the time of writing, 21,293 civilians and more than 100,000 Ukrainian military personnel are reported to have been killed since the beginning of the invasion on February 24, 2022. There is no Luhansk anymore: it is only a fragment-“hansk”-that remains. Yakimchuk writes: “don’t talk to me about Luhansk/ it’s long since turned into hansk/ Lu had been razed to the ground/ to the crimson pavement.” 1 Yakimchuk decomposes the names of cities in the same way they are splintered into parts. ![]() In 2014, the year when the Russian war against Ukraine started, Lyuba Yakimchuk wrote a poem titled “Decomposition.” The poem shows what the war is about: ruination and destruction.
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