Farewell ceremony for soldier and poet Maksym "Dali" Kryvtsov held in Kyiv – photo

A memorial service for fallen soldier and poet Maksym Kryvtsov was held in St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery on Thursday, 11 January. About a hundred Ukrainians came to honour his memory.

A procession then headed to Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), where the number of people swelled to 1,000, including soldiers and civilians alike.

After a farewell ceremony, the procession continued on to the place where Maksym will be buried - his hometown of Rivne. The funeral will be held on Friday, 12 January.

During the farewell ceremony in Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Maksym’s poetry was read out in his voice.

On the evening of 7 January, it was reported that the poet Maksym Kryvtsov, who went by the alias Dali, had been killed. Maksym wrote the lyrics for the hit songs Zhovtyi Skotch (Yellow Tape) and Panivna Vysota (Dominant Height) and was a soldier and veteran of the Anti-Terrorist Operation. He is also the author of Virshi z Biinytsi (Verses from the Embrasure), recognised as one of the best Ukrainian books of 2023 according to PEN Ukraine [a Ukrainian non-governmental organisation established to protect freedom of speech and authors' rights – ed.]. In addition to poetry, the book contains photographs taken by Maksym.

Maksym Kryvtsov participated in the Revolution of Dignity and then went to the front as a volunteer in 2014. He fought in the 5th Battalion of the Pravyi Sektor (Right Sector) Voluntary Ukrainian Corps and together with the Da Vinci Wolves. Up until 2019, he was a senior machine gunner in the Rubizh (Frontier) Rapid Response Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine.

After his demobilisation, Maksym also worked at the Centre for the Rehabilitation and Readaptation of Anti-Terrorist Operation and Joint Forces participants and for Veteran Hub. He returned to the front when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.

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