Lines of Resistance
Ukrainian Wartime Poetry
About the Initiative
We are a cultural Initiative between the UK and Ukraine to translate, publish, and research Ukrainian wartime poetry, bringing it to English-speaking audiences worldwide.
We spring from a collaboration that began in summer 2023 between the University of Exeter and UNESCO Cities of Literature—Exeter and Lviv. The Initiative was launched by Professor Hugh Roberts and the poet, translator, and PEN Ukraine representative, Yuliya Musakovska.
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Fedir “Author” Rudiy
The Position
(The One Remaining)Fedir (callsign “Author”) Rudyi – first released on TikTok, ‘The Position’ is an extraordinarily moving poem recorded on the front line, from the eponymous position, where Fedir Rudyi is on active service for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Sounds of artillery can be heard in the background.
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Yaryna Chornohuz
(forest and field spirits)
Yaryna Chornohuz is a philologist, poet, translator, and member of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This poem comes from her collection, [dasein: defence of presence] (Vikhola, 2023), which was joint winner of the 2024 Taras Shevchenko Prize for Literature, the most prestigious cultural award in Ukraine, and also received a special award from the UNESCO City of Literature Prize in Lviv in 2023.
She recorded ‘[forest and field spirits]’ in the Donbas in 2023, while serving as a platoon combat medic and scout for the 140th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion of the Ukrainian Marine Corps.
Media
Locally Rooted, Globally Connected: Lessons from Ukraine
Since summer 2023, University of Exeter professor Hugh Roberts has been the University’s lead of a project to facilitate translation and promotion of Ukrainian Wartime Poetry. In October 2025, Hugh visited Lviv, Ukraine for the annual BookForum.
L to R: Hanna Khriakova, Fiona Benson, Artur Dron, Ihor Mitrov, Yuliya Musakovska, Hugh R. Fedir Rudyi courtesy of Olivia Resenterra
Defending the human in war poetry
We listen to Ukrainian servicewoman and prize-winning poet, Yaryna Chornohuz, to hear her work written under fire while saving lives as a combat medic, and gain a unique perspective on world events. Speaking to Hugh Roberts, of Exeter University, we consider what it means to write poetry on the front line of the bloodiest war in Europe since the Second World War. 13 November 2025. Swedenborg House.
News and Events
‘After the reading, the poets hold each other’: what happens when Ukraine’s largest literary festival comes under Russian attack
Poets and soldiers Fedir Rudyi, Ihor Mitrov and Artur Dron’ at the BookForum festival in Lviv.
Photograph: Lviv BookForum
Ukrainian Soldier Poets: the Cup of War – Hugh Roberts
Not since the First World War has Europe witnessed poetry of such significance and magnitude by writers who are also combatants as that produced by members of the Ukrainian Defence Forces in the Russo-Ukrainian war
