Ukrainian ballet star Artyom Datsishin died Thursday from wounds he suffered amid Russian shelling weeks earlier, several of his colleagues said.
Datsishin was a principal dancer at the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv.
“He was a beautiful dancer loved by his colleagues. Unbearable pain,” wrote Alexei Ratmansky, an influential Ukrainian choreographer who until recently was working on a new show at Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet.
Ratmansky, who grew up in Kyiv, fled to New York when Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.
Datsishin was hit and critically injured by a Russian attack on Feb. 26, the colleagues said on social media. Russian troops began moving into Ukraine just two days earlier.
Tatyana Borovik, whose Facebook profile says she worked at the Kyiv opera, said Datsishin would be cremated and a funeral held on Friday in the capital city, which is still holding out against Russia’s invasion.
Anatoly Solovyanenko, the opera house stage director, also confirmed the death, calling Datsishin a “wonderful” person.
Ratmansky said the news made him “furious.”
Datsishin was 43, according to the Evening Standard, a British newspaper. He had reportedly toured Europe and America, starring in classics like “Swan Lake,” “The Nutcracker,” “Giselle” and “Romeo and Juliet.”
His death comes shortly after a respected Ukrainian actor, Oksana Shvets, was killed in a rocket attack on a residential building in Kyiv this week.