Dmytro Matviishyn
A soldier of the 45th Separate Artillery Brigade. An architect, researcher of urban spaces, studio instructor and tutor at the Kharkiv School of Architecture.
Author of the short story “Diary of the Bullet-Riddled Forests” in the collection Stories of Warriors — an honest, tense, and at the same time lyrical testimony of the first days of combat in the Zaporizhzhia region. In the text, he conveys a sense of fractured time, space, body, and memory, where alongside explosions emerges the scent of cherry plums, and amid the chaos of life a quiet humanity takes root.
Military path
Voluntarily joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the first days of the full-scale invasion.
Served with the 45th Separate Artillery Brigade from February 25, 2022, to February 13, 2023.
Took part in combat operations on the Vremivka salient and in the Kherson counteroffensive.
Served in artillery reconnaissance, adjusted fire, and carried out missions under difficult conditions of constant shelling.
Civilian Path
Graduated from the Ukrainian National Forestry University with a degree in Architecture and Urbanism.
Worked at ZOTOV&CO, YOD design, Pashenko, and ZELEMIN as a lead architect and as a freelancer.
Participated in interdisciplinary urban research projects, including:
— “Dreaming of KhTZ”,
— “Rethinking a Container Settlement for Internally Displaced Persons in Nikopol”.
Was part of the team developing the “Telychka” Master Plan — a large-scale transformation of an abandoned industrial zone in central Kyiv.
After military service, he teaches and serves as a tutor at the Kharkiv School of Architecture. He continues to work in the field of Ukrainian urban recovery, focusing on large degraded territories and new forms of contemporary Ukrainian architecture.
How he started writing:
By keeping a diary.
Favorite Books, Music, and Films
Film: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.