Don’t Waste Your Empathy on Invaders – Abstract Sympathy is a Lethal Weapon! (video interview)

05/12/2026

Artur Dron is a 25-year-old Ukrainian poet, essayist, and combat veteran. Born in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast in western Ukraine. Graduated from the Department of Journalism at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. Before the full-scale invasion, worked as event manager at The Old Lion Publishing House in Lviv — the publisher that would later issue Hemingway Knows Nothing. Saw combat across Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. Seriously wounded in October 2024 by an anti-personnel mine. Endured multiple surgeries and a nerve transplant after shrapnel injuries. Demobilised in July 2025 due to disability — discharged on 4 July 2025, completing service that began on 2 March 2022. His poetry has been translated into at least ten languages.