“CREATIVITY AND CAPTIVITY” A Meeting with Released Prisoner of War Mykyta Markitanov, Poet Oksana Stomina, and Artist Maryna Sochenko

Press Announcement“CREATIVITY AND CAPTIVITY”A Meeting with Released Prisoner of WarMykyta Markitanov, Poet Oksana Stomina,and Artist Maryna Sochenko

On 21 June 2026, at 15:00, the Museum will host a meeting with released prisoner of war Mykyta Markitanov, poet Oksana Stomina, the wife of Dmytro Paskalov, an Azovstal defender released from captivity, and artist Maryna Sochenko, who depicts prisoners of war in her works.

Despite health problems, Mykyta volunteered for the war in July 2023. He joined the ranks of the 3rd Assault Brigade “Azov” and underwent training. He fought in the Avdiivka direction, and in February 2024 he was taken prisoner. According to the soldier, he and other prisoners of war were “sold” to Chechnya for forced labor. Mykyta Markitanov spent almost two years in captivity. He managed to return home only recently – on 24 April 2026. During his time in russian dungeons, he wrote an entire series of poems dedicated to the war and captivity, which he carried out by hiding them in his shoes.

Oksana Stomina is a poet and civic activist from Mariupol, as well as the author and editor of numerous collections about the war, which have been translated into German, Italian, English, Spanish, Lithuanian, and Czech. In May 2026, her husband Dmytro Paskalov, an Azovstal defender who had been held in captivity since May 2022, returned from russian captivity.

Maryna Sochenko is a renowned artist, volunteer, and Honored Artist of Ukraine, whose son Liubomyr volunteered for the front and was killed. She created a gallery of works, many of which she dedicated to her sons – defenders of Ukraine.

After the beginning of the war, she worked as a volunteer. She drew wounded ATO soldiers in hospitals, visited the front line several times, and brought back more than one hundred portraits of heroes, defenders of Ukraine. Among her works, those dedicated to the captured defenders of Azovstal stand out in particular.

During the meeting, Mykyta Markitanov and his family will tell the story of the warrior’s life and combat path and read his poems written in captivity. Oksana Stomina and Maryna Sochenko will speak about their creative experience inspired by the stories of Ukrainian defenders held as prisoners of war.

This meeting is about the strength of the human spirit, which does not fade even in captivity; about creativity as a way to endure and preserve oneself; and about memory captured through art.

We invite you to join a conversation about what has been endured, to hear poems born in captivity, and to see the stories of Defenders through the eyes of an artist.

Admission is free.