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Ukrainian ballet star Artyom Datsishin has passed away after being shelled by Russian invaders. The 43-year-old's death has provoked outrage among members of Moscow's Bolshoi Theater community.
The dancer was reportedly fighting for his life for three weeks at a hospital before passing away.
The internationally acclaimed star was wounded in the capital city of Kyiv just two days after the Russian invasion began. His friend Tatyana Borovik said:
"On February 26, he was fired upon by the Russian military. He was seriously wounded and died in the hospital."
Artyom Datsishin was an honored artist in Ukraine. He has performed the main roles in Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Rome and Juliet, and Sleeping Beauty. Throughout his career, he has toured Europe and the USA.
Fellow artists pay tribute to Artyom Datsishin following his death
Anatoly Solovyanenko, the chief stage director at the National Opera of Ukraine, called the dancer "a great artist" and "a wonderful man" in a Facebook post.
Alexei Ratmansky, a Russian-American choreographer, expressed sadness following the dancer's death. He said that Artyom Datsishin died from "wounds received on February 26 when he got under Russian artillery fire." He continued:
"He was a beautiful dancer loved by his colleagues. Unbearable pain."
Ratmansky was a principal dancer in Kyiv and was also the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. He fled to New York to become an artist in residence at the American Ballet Theater when President Putin invaded Ukraine.
According to The Mirror, the ballet dancer's style was described as having "academic expressiveness, romantic elation, and psychological depth."
Tatyana Borovik, who worked at the Kyiv opera, announced that Datsishin would be cremated, and a funeral would be held today in the capital city on Friday. The city is still holding out against the Russian military.
The artist's death comes shortly after Ukrainian actor Oksana Shvets passed away after being killed in a rocket attack.
The 67-year-old was reported to be a member of the Young Theatre company. She has acted on stage and on-screen for decades and was one of the recipients of the county's highest accolades.
