“It is already a symbol of Ukraine”

His girlfriend, also an artist Arina Nikolenkoposted one of the most moving messages ever seen on social media shortly after the attack: “She was an artist, a poet, she admired Ukrainian culture and many other things… and, among other things, she was my girlfriend. And about an hour ago, I saw her dead in the hospital. He died in the bombing. “She was murdered by the Russians.”

Arina speaks to EL ESPAÑOL, broken by grief, to remember Nika in her words: “She studied at the National University of Radioelectronics in Kharkiv, majoring in multimedia. wrote poems and drew. He also filmed the tenants of the Kharkiv Literary Museum to make his own film about life in the city.

“Actually, being involved in the development of Ukrainian culture was what made her happy. Well, that and small things like having her coffee at “Nafta” or photographing the building of the national industry… she was constantly taking pictures of him and, on the eve of his death, we joked that I should have created a separate folder just for these photos,” he recalls.

Despite his youth, Nika was a prolific creator. He produced pencil portraits with a beautiful technical skill, and one of his recurring themes was immortalizing Ukrainian writers and poets –whose books he devoured–. It is surprising to see to what extent the war has awakened in the young Ukrainian generations an overflowing passion for the culture of their country.

“Nika loved the poems of Mykhailo Semenkoespecially Forklift driver, and a few weeks before his death he finished reading the book of Geo Shkurupia Zhanna Battalionnerkawhich he later discussed with me enthusiastically,” his girlfriend adds. “He also loved classic rock: Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Pink Floyd…He was so happy, he had so many hobbies and if he started to get interested in something, he learned absolutely everything. He dreamed of developing culture in Kharkiv, He couldn’t imagine his life outside of this city.“.

Before saying goodbye, she sends a photo of the two of them together, which illustrates this article. “It’s our last photo togetherof the exhibition we had just done. The first exhibition for me and the last for her,” he said.

Artists on the warpath

Instagram and TikTok platforms were flooded with Nika’s photo shortly after he was killed by Kremlin bombs. Messages of condolence and a reminder that he had his whole life ahead of him — and too much talent to give up so soon — filled reels And stories.

“We must write and capture what is happening now, because the dead will no longer be able to speak in ten or twenty years. Now we have to leave everything written in Ukrainian.“, they recalled at the end of July on the stage of the Border Cultural Festival, organized in the city of Lutsk – near Poland – and where Ukrainian culture and its creators were asserted.

Another well-known Ukrainian artist took part in this festival, Irene Karpawho also knew Nika. “I met her at behind the scenes from our concert in Kharkiv last fall, when we presented the Skovorodance project with the writer and singer Serhiy Zhadan and the musician Yura Gurzhy,” says Karpa, who now lives between France and the war.

“Nika was with her friend, shyly trying to attract Serhiy’s attention… it turns out she was his big fan,” he fondly recalls. “It was I who noticed these young women and listened to them, and it turned out that he brought us gifts: his works!” Veronika had made an illustration with the hands of Irena, Serhiy and Yura, intertwined. And he gave it to her.

It was precisely the writer he admired so much, Serhiy Zhadanto whom he sent a photo of his last work just an hour before his death. It was a pencil drawing of a young girl sitting on a tree branch. Looking into infinity.

“I was impressed by her technique and style,” Irena continues. “They spent some time with us and she seemed like a very serious, educated and honest girl… I found out now that she was only 18. When Yura asked me if she, I remembered… Well, she remembered this type of face that we don’t forget” she said sadly.

Daily bombings

With Nika, during the attack on Friday, six other people died. And more than 70 people were injured – including about 20 children. The guided bombs that killed them were dropped from a Russian plane flying over Belgorod, about 25 kilometers from the border with Kharkiv.

The witness to the attack who described how the house shook, Liudmila, still remembers with shock that “when we looked out the window, we saw that, literally, the entrance of the house was on fire“It was a very scary sight. People started calling us, friends and acquaintances, asking if we were alive,” he said.

This is not the only massive Russian attack on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure in recent days: on Monday, the the worst memory bombing since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion two and a half years ago. A total of 239 Iranian-made Shahed-type suicide missiles and drones struck kyiv and other cities within two hours.

And as these lines are being written, another bombing of Kharkiv is once again claiming victims. Half a dozen impacts have been reported in different parts of the city, where emergency services are currently working to rescue people trapped in the rubble.

“When I heard about Nika’s death, I was devastated. Another person I knew, another person who could have done so much more if she had been able to live,” says Irena Karpa on the other end of the line.War is much closer than we can imagine. Every time I think I can no longer hate the Russian terrorists who kill my peaceful fellow citizens, Russia strikes again. Children’s hospitals, cafes, apartment buildings…”

What Russian bombs will not be able to destroy, even if they attack Ukrainian cities, will be the memory of Nika. “Many people knew her after her death, but her image has already become a symbol for the cultural community,” says Mykyta, one of the organizers of the Frontera Festival.