As many as 238 Ukrainian artists and 119 media workers, including foreigners, have been killed in Ukraine since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

The Ministry of Culture of Ukraine said this in a statement seen by Ukrinform.

The ministry stressed that Russia is deliberately targeting Ukraine's cultural elite, drawing parallels to the Stalinist regime's destruction of a generation of Ukrainian artists in the 1920s and 1930s.

"Today we are once again losing not just talented Ukrainians, but a part of our soul, because every artist is a unique individual who enriches Ukrainian culture," the ministry said.