“When there is an air raid alarm, we stop performing and go to the shelters with the audience, then once it is over we pick up where we left off.” Viktoria Melnyk is a leading Ukrainian soprano who is currently touring the UK as part of Ellen Kent’s productions of La Traviata, La Boheme and Madama Butterfly. Melnyk has continued to perform in Ukraine throughout the last three years despite many of her colleagues having to flee to various other European countries, but it is not without its dangers.
“I can hear the rockets flying past my house. They fly extremely fast, we don’t have a safe place in Ukraine at all,” Melnyk confides. When the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, the young vocalist was in Kyiv. “A lot of my colleagues went abroad, many of them started studying at different European colleges and conservatories and some of them are still there. I stayed in Ukraine for the first year though, it was a very difficult time, there was a lot of panic.”
Melnyk describes the situation in Kyiv as being ‘critical’. “There are drones and rockets, missiles always flying above Kyiv. At night you can’t sleep well because of the stress of it.”
Theatres have remained open for the most part across the country, finding ways to adapt to the changing lives and landscape around them. Melnyk explains: “Theatres in general continue to work but we have made changes. Our performances start at four or five. Our theatres are now more progressive because we work more closely now with different European theatres.”
Through touring Europe, Melnyk has learned how valuable the arts is to displaced Ukrainians as well as those on the frontlines. “Many musicians went to the frontlines, they support the soldiers because there’s a lot of pressure on them, they don’t know if they will survive or not but music and art brings them comfort.
“Even people in Manchester, Ukrainian refugees here, said how our performances were a big support to them. We went on marches and people were very grateful for our presence. It’s a big deal for them that we share our culture across Europe and at the end of every performance we sing our national anthem. It’s a touching moment when people stand to support us, whether they are from Ukraine or from the UK.”
However, Russian aggression has not spared Ukraine’s arts and cultural sector and Melnyk has just one wish: “I just hope after this tour, I will still have my country to come back to.”
As of February this year, 485 cultural sites verified by UNESCO have been destroyed or damaged since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Of those, 249 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, 149 were religious buildings and 33 museums had also been hit by Russian missiles.
Meanwhile, 2,024 cultural institutions (including those under the Ministry of Culture and other central executive bodies) have been affected, excluding cultural heritage sites, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture. This includes 974 creative hubs, 720 libraries, 157 artistic educational institutions, 117 galleries, 37 theatres, cinemas and philharmonic halls, 16 zoos and three circuses.
The most notable incident was at the Mariupol Theatre, which was providing shelter to civilians when it was targeted by Putin’s military on 16 March 2022. Officially classed as a war crime, it resulted in what is thought to be the highest loss of civilian life in a single attack since the war began.
Actor Dave MacCreedy from Tameside, who has organised aid for the people of Ukraine on several occasions, was instrumental in bringing actors from the Mariupol Theatre to Manchester in January 2025 to tell their story in their own way. Mariupol Drama told the story of the atrocities that happened on that fateful day, and was performed by actors who were there, who witnessed their friends die.
The impact on the Manchester audience was astounding. “We did six shows and got six standing ovations,” he said. “It just hit a lot of people hard, which was what we wanted.”
MacCreedy had spent time working in Romania after leaving drama school. A friend and fellow actor in Romania put him in touch with two Ukrainians at the start of the war as the Tameside actor looked at ways of supporting the country. He set up a Facebook page and he and his friends began filling shoeboxes full of essentials for Ukrainian refugees arriving in Romania. His
second aid effort focused on raising funds to deliver baby clothes to an orphanage.
“They said there were 11 kids there. So someone in Hattersley knitted 11 teddy bears and when we got there, they had 17 kids. So six of them didn’t get the bears and I was horrified but we managed to get them sent over later.”
MacCreedy met the Mariupol Theatre company by chance at a festival on one of his trips to Romania. “It’s a story told by the people who were there about the place where they work getting deliberately targeted and bombed, and lots and lots of their friends being killed in amongst thousands of other people being killed,” MacCreedy continued. “There are newspaper articles about it and documentaries but because they are theatre actors, they wanted to tell their story in their own way, using the medium in which they work.”
Though their story is harrowing, MacCreedy says it is something they live with everyday and by putting their trauma aside to perform this drama night after night, they keep their fellow countrymen’s memory alive. “They live with this every day, it’s in their minds every day and by performing every night, they are telling the story to more and more people and they feel it’s their duty to do that.”
The play is performed in their native language, Ukrainian, and carries a poignant message as MacCreedy translates: “You tried to kill us, and you tried to kill our culture. You bomb our theatre, but we will not let you kill us or our culture. We will travel the world and tell the story of what you’re trying to do to us.”
The actor, who starred in All Quiet on the Preston Front, has seen first-hand the horrors of the war in Ukraine but says he is impressed by the resilience of those working in the arts over there. “It pleasantly surprised me, of how many productions they’re doing and how much stuff is going on. I think it helps bring a sense of normality. The air raid siren will go off, and everyone will go into the shelter and stand around, have a chat and then when the all clear sounds, the actors and the audience just carry on where they left off.
“The Mariupol Theatre company is performing all the time. I think there’s definitely been a resurgence. In an ideal world we would bring it back to the UK. We’re looking at circus antics in the White House, listening to blatant lies and this play is an opportunity to see the truth.”
MacCreedy is dubious of any US-brokered peace deal, afraid that a compromise may ‘reward’ the aggressor. “They are fighting for the ability to speak, to dance, to do their own poetry, to speak their own language, and that’s all at stake.
“Imagine if somebody invaded England and took out Liverpool, Manchester, Oldham, Bolton – killed thousands of people, and then everyone said we need to stop this war so the enemy can keep Bolton, Oldham and West Manchester. You’d be like, no. Why? In the Second World War, there was never a deal with Germany to say, okay, well, if we stop the war, you can have half of Belgium. So why are other people thinking like that? Why do people think it’s okay for the enemy to be rewarded with their towns? It’s wrong, it’s injustice.”
Meanwhile, many of those who worked in the arts and culture sector now work on the frontlines. Nathalie Vlasenko was a dancer and tour guide in Odessa prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine but now uses her knowledge and communication skills as a medical interpreter and guide for foreign journalists on the front line.
Vlasenko’s passion for classical dance began when she was around five years old and despite a break during her teens, when she was 20 she rekindled her love of the art form at the Studio of Ballet, Odessa.
“I have had some breaks from it these past few years, especially on my work trips with journalists but it’s inspiration for me, it’s something which, especially now, supports my mental health. I try to continue doing some ballet exercises, even being in Donbas, I just train in my room, or do some stretches.”
Odessa looks different now, the sea port came under heavy attack, destroying hotels, homes and its iconic cathedral. However, Ukrainian tourists continue to visit the city, which still opens the doors to its opera house and sees new cafes springing up, but at night Russian attacks threaten its once picturesque surroundings.
Vlasenko said: “It was a dream job because I got to meet so many nice people from around the world, some of them still keep in touch, and they sometimes support my fundraising for medics, or just write me supportive messages, which means a lot to me.”
The 32-year-old worked in tourism for ten years prior to the invasion, showcasing the sights and sounds of Odessa to travellers from the UK, US, Europe and Australia. Now she leads journalists to the site of the latest Russian attacks.
She said: “My job was about culture, making people acquainted with my country. Now everything is different, I work in Donbas with the foreign medics and as a fixer with a foreign journalist.
“I travelled round Ukraine but mostly to the frontline zones. My journalist joked that now I’m like a military tour guide. It’s not entertainment, it’s not sightseeing, it’s more about visiting some affected areas, doing interviews, or just showing the results of another Russian attack.”
Vlasenko admires how arts institutions adapted in the first few months of the war. “At the start of the war everything closed – theatres, museums – but they reopened in July that year. Now, the drama theatre and opera house is open.
“I think it’s very important that theatres and museums continue working, because it’s the place where you can distract a little bit from the war, from all the reality we have, from the news, and just immerse yourself in something beautiful.”
Vlasenko herself has drawn inspiration and taken comfort from Ukraine’s proud cultural heritage in what is now one of the darkest times in the country’s history. “When I was in Kyiv, there were many exhibitions, some of them connected with the war, others about Ukrainian culture. Some were private collections of Ukrainian icons, or pictures from the 1920s and 1930s showing life in villages in the Turkasi region. It was interesting, just to be able to switch from the news and from my work, and just go and see something beautiful.”
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Featured image: II Antonia Campi competition in Lublin Poland 2019, photo Przemysław Gąbka
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