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Artyom Datsishin, Ukrainian Ballet Star, Succumbs to Injuries From Russian Shelling

He’d been fighting for his life after he was hit by a Russian mortar three weeks ago.

Ukraine ballet star and internationally renowned dancer Artyom Datsishin has died, three weeks after he was hit by Russian shelling in Kyiv. He was 43. Datsishin performed leading roles in Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty with Ukraine’s National Opera. The acclaimed dancer’s death drew anger from across the ballet world, including the former artistic director of the Russian Bolshoi Ballet, Alexei Ratmansky, who described Datsishin’s death as “unbearable pain,” according to Ukrainian news outlets. “I am furious,” Ratmansky said Friday. Datsishin’s ballet style was described by Ukrainian news sites as “academic expressiveness, romantic elation, and psychological depth.”