1990–2024
Maksym Kryvtsov
Poet, photographer, SSO soldier
A poet and photographer, call sign “Dali”, a volunteer from 2014 and, from 2022, a special forces machine gunner. PEN Ukraine named his collection Poems from the Embrasure one of the best books of 2023. Killed on 7 January 2024; Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
Key accomplishments
- The collection Poems from the Embrasure (Nash Format, 2023), one of the best Ukrainian books of 2023 according to PEN Ukraine
- A volunteer from 2014: the 5th battalion of the Right Sector Volunteer Corps, then a senior machine gunner in the National Guard’s Rapid Reaction Brigade (2016–2019)
- After demobilization he worked for veterans, at the YARMIZ readaptation center for ATO veterans and at Veteran Hub
- From 2022, a machine gunner in the 3rd Separate Special Operations Regiment of the Armed Forces
- Hero of Ukraine (posthumously, decree No. 608/2025 of 22 August 2025)
Who he was
Maksym Kryvtsov was born in 1990 in Rivne. He studied at a technical college of technology and design in Rivne, and in 2014 graduated from the Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design, where he studied footwear and leather-goods design. He worked at a nonwoven-fabrics factory, in a shop and a tailoring studio, and as a photographer. He had written poetry since his teens.
His story
Kryvtsov took part in the Revolution of Dignity, and in 2014 he went to the front as a volunteer: first in the 5th battalion of the Right Sector Volunteer Corps, then as a senior machine gunner in the National Guard’s Rapid Reaction Brigade (2016–2019). After demobilization he helped other veterans, working at the YARMIZ readaptation center for ATO veterans and as a copywriter at Veteran Hub. When the full-scale invasion began in 2022 he rejoined the army and served as a machine gunner in the 3rd Separate Special Operations Regiment.
In 2023 the publisher Nash Format released his first and only collection of his own poems, Poems from the Embrasure (Virshi z biinytsi): free verse about war, love and ordinary life, illustrated with his own photographs. PEN Ukraine named it one of the best Ukrainian books of 2023. The band Yurcash performs songs set to his poems.
Maksym Kryvtsov was killed in battle in Kharkiv Oblast on 7 January 2024, two weeks before his 34th birthday. He was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit, 3rd class (2024), and in 2025 he was made a Hero of Ukraine.
Why it matters today
Poems from the Embrasure became one of the best-known books of poetry written at the front: in March 2024 it topped sales at the new Sens bookshop on Khreshchatyk. Songs are still being written to Kryvtsov’s poems, and in 2024 a lane in Kyiv was renamed in his honor. His poetry shows the war from the inside, with its horror, its daily routine and the longing for ordinary life.
