Kyiv Mourns ‘Bright and Talented’ Actor Yuriy Felipenko Killed on front

Hundreds gathered in Kyiv on Thursday for the funeral of Ukrainian soldier and former actor Yuriy Felipenko, who was killed on the front line aged 32. Before joining the Ukrainian army in April 2024, Felipenko starred in several stage productions and TV shows, playing a lead role in Ukrainian crime serial The Colour of Passion. Since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, multiple Ukrainian actors, artists and writers have been killed — both in combat and during Russian bombardment of towns and cities. Felipenko's death last week, just over a year after he enlisted, was the

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latest blow to Ukraine's artistic community and prompted an outpouring of grief among his colleagues. "Such a bright and talented person has been taken away," actress Anna Koshmal wrote on Instagram. Ukrainian TV host Masha Yefrosinina described his death as "horrific and painful". "It was Yuriy who gave me the feeling that a new era of modern young Ukrainian actors was dawn-