Poetry collection by fallen Ukrainian soldier and poet Maksym Kryvtsov to be published in English

“Poems from the Loophole,” a collection by Ukrainian poet and soldier Maksym Kryvtsov, who was killed while defending Ukraine in 2024, will be published in the United Kingdom by independent press Jantar Publishing in a translation by Larissa Babij and Helena Kernan, with support from an English PEN Translates grant.

Preti Taneja, co-chair of the English PEN Translation Advisory Group, said the projects would “bring writers, translators and their outstanding work to new readers and audiences” who might otherwise have no access to them.

According to Ukrainian poet Yuliya Musakovska, Jantar Publishing founder Michael Tate had hoped to publish Kryvtsov’s book since 2023. Musakovska said the English edition was scheduled for release in 2027.

The collection is expected to become the third Ukrainian poetry book in Jantar Publishing’s Amber Poets series, following Artur Dron’s “We Were Here” and Yaryna Chornohuz’s “[dasein: defence of presence].”

Musakovska recalled that, among the Ukrainian poems she, Olena Huseinova, and Anna Khriakova brought to the UK in July 2023, Kryvtsov’s “Mary to Golgotha” made the strongest impression on Hugh Roberts and his colleagues at the University of Exeter. She said the poem helped open the way for a productive collaboration that continues today.

In a conversation with Chytomo, Roberts, a professor of French literature at the University of Exeter, recalled working on “Mary to Golgotha” for the 2023 “Translating Cultures with UNESCO Cities of Literature” event. The University of Exeter also confirms that the event took place during the Lviv delegation’s visit in July 2023.

“As I worked on that poem, I realised I was dealing with something of the highest order,” Roberts said. Referring to Simone Weil’s idea that truth, beauty, and justice can unite in great works of art, he said Kryvtsov’s poem reached that level. Roberts later called “Mary to Golgotha” his favorite poem, adding that it “carries me through every challenge.” Here, Hugh Roberts reads Maksym Kryvtsov’s “Mary to Golgotha” in English. The translation was prepared with Helen Vassallo and a team at the University of Exeter.

Roberts also explained how the Exeter-based translation initiative established contact with Jantar Publishing. His colleague Helen Vassallo contacted Tate after seeing his post about Kryvtsov’s death while the team was seeking a publisher for Artur Dron’s “We Were Here.” Jantar subsequently published Dron’s collection with support from the Ukrainian Book Institute’s Translate Ukraine program.

Kryvtsov, whose military call sign was Dali, was born in Rivne on Jan. 22, 1990. He participated in Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity and joined the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps after Russia began its war against Ukraine in 2014. He later worked at a rehabilitation and readaptation center for veterans and at Veteran Hub. After Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, he returned to military service. Kryvtsov was killed on the front line on Jan. 7, 2024. He had served as a machine gunner with Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces and fought in several regions of the country.

Nash Format published Kryvtsov’s debut collection, «Вірші з бійниці» (“Poems from the Loophole”), in December 2023. The volume featured photographs taken by Kryvtsov and was included in PEN Ukraine’s list of the best Ukrainian books of 2023.

In 2025, Nash Format posthumously published «На мінному полі пам’яті. Щоденники, есеї, оповідання» (“In the Minefield of Memory: Diaries, Essays and Short Stories”), which contains Kryvtsov’s diary entries, essays, short stories, and selected poems, collected and edited by his friend and fellow serviceman Valerii Puzik.

Kryvtsov was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Ukraine in August 2025.

“Poems from the Loophole” has previously appeared in French, Modern Greek, Lithuanian, and Portuguese. The French edition was published by Éditions Bleu et Jaune, while the Lithuanian edition was released by Baziliskas and later recognized in Lithuania as the best translation of 2025. The Portuguese-language edition was published in Brazil.

As reported earlier, Puzik has also been collecting video materials featuring Kryvtsov for the documentary о“I, Maksym Kryvtsov.”