Ukrainian ballet dancer Artyom Datsishin died on Thursday, almost three weeks after he sustained serious injuries in Russian shelling. He was 43. 

Datsishin was wounded in Kyiv on February 26, two days after Russia’s invasion began. He was hospitalised in a critical condition and succumbed to injuries on Thursday.

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Confirming the news, his Tatyana Borovik wrote on Facebook, “On February 26, he was fired upon by the Russian military. He was seriously injured and died in the hospital.”

“I can’t express my heartache that is overwhelming me. May your memory be bright,” she wrote. 

His funeral was held on Friday. 

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Who was Artyom Datsishin?

Artyom Datsishin was a leading Ukrainian ballet dancer and an internationally-acclaimed star who had performed the main roles in several well-known ballets, including, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, and The Nutcracker. He often toured Europe and the United States.

Following his death, Alexei Ratmansky, former artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet and one of Moscow’s biggest ballet names, took to social media to pay tributes. 

“ARTYOM DATSISHIN, a principal dancer with National Opera House of Ukraine died today in the Kyiv hospital from wounds received on February 26 when he got caught under Russian artillery fire. He was a beautiful dancer loved by his colleagues. Unbearable pain,” he wrote on Facebook. 

 The news comes a day after Ukrainian actor Oksana Shvets was killed in a rocket attack on a residential building in Kyiv. 

Confirming her death, her troupe, the Young Theatre, issued a statement that read, “During the rocket shelling of a residential building in Kyiv, a well-deserved artist of Ukraine Oksana Shvets was killed.”