Investigation ends for Volodymyr Vakulenko, honored as hero of Ukraine posthumously

Police have finished investigating the murder of Ukrainian author and public figure Volodymyr Vakulenko-K during the occupation of part of the Kharkiv oblast. The case is in court.

According to the police, investigators gathered irrefutable evidence of the involvement of the company commander, his deputy, the platoon commander, and the machine gunner in war crimes in the village of Kapytolivka. All suspects are natives of the Luhansk oblast, and they have now been charged with war crimes.

“Vakulenko became one of the victims of the occupiers’ brutal crimes. The Russian military offered him cooperation and tried to force him to give up his pro-Ukrainian patriotic views. The writer refused and paid with his life. He was beaten, tortured, shot in the legs, and held in inhumane conditions. Numerous searches were conducted in the house. Later, they brought him to their location and killed him,” representative of the National Police said.

According to the examination results, the writer died of gunshot wounds: two bullets from a Makarov pistol were removed from Vakulenko’s body. In addition, the writer was tortured by the occupiers and had his fingers broken.

On March 24, 2022, Vakulenko was kidnapped by Russian occupiers from Kapytolivka near Izyum in the Kharkiv oblast where he lived. The day before, on March 23, 2022, Vakulenko, knowing the occupiers kept an eye on him, hid his diary near his parents’ house under a cherry tree, knowing that the occupiers would come for him.

On Oct. 1, 2025, on Defenders Day, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyi awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to Vakulenko posthumously.

Volodymyr Vakulenko is a public figure, a participant in the Revolution of Dignity, and the author of 13 books. He is known as Volodymyr Vakulenko-K. He is a laureate of the international Oles Ulyanenko literary award, laureate of the Les Martovych Ukrainian competition, laureate of the international award Koronatsiya Slova, and he has been awarded the Silver Trident honor for literary achievements dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence.

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Copy editing: Joy Tataryn