A Russian actress who traveled to occupied Ukraine to perform for Russian troops there was killed while on stage when Ukrainian forces carried out a strike in the area.
Polina Menshikh, 40, was singing at celebrations for a Russian military holiday on Sunday when mortar fire cut the party short, according to footage said to capture her final moments on stage at the local House of Culture in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
The St. Petersburg theater with which Menshikh worked confirmed her death in a statement.
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“It is with great pain that we inform you Polina Menshikh, famous as the director of one of the versions of ‘The Last Trial,’ died yesterday at a performance in Donbas as a result of shelling,” the theater’s press service said.
A video apparently filmed by someone in the audience showed Menshikh singing on stage against the backdrop of a Russian flag when the building was hit. An explosion can be heard as the building shakes before the lights go out and people can be heard screaming, with one man simply shouting “Fuck!”
Ukrainian authorities said several Russian service members were also killed in the strike.
“They smashed the volunteers’ cars with one HIMARS rocket, and with the second one—the dressing room with the artists and the stage,” a Russian service member was quoted as saying by Russian media.
Several of Menshikh’s protégés took to social media to mourn her death. “An entire collective has been orphaned, and we, her colleagues have also been orphaned somewhat,” wrote one theater colleague, describing Menshikh’s death as a “huge loss.”
Russian propagandist and warmonger Alexander Kots also paid tribute, writing that “Polina was aware of the danger. She was a wonderful person, very fragile, light and almost weightless, but with such a big and brave heart.”
But some anti-war Russians were not so sympathetic: “I’m stunned, honestly. They’re ‘orphaned.’ You know who’s been orphaned? The kids whose fathers are being killed by the people Polina was performing for.”
