Apchel Olena

Olena Apchel is a playwright, director, performer, cultural ambassador, board member of the Coalition of Cultural Activists, member of the "SEMA Ukraine" NGO against violence and impunity in war, sister of the VETERANKA Movement, and lieutenant of the National Guard of Ukraine. From 2010 to 2015, she taught at the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture in the Faculty of Theatrical Art, where in 2014 she received her PhD degree. She is the author of a number of scholarly works dedicated to the study of socially responsible and political art. Her professional activity has also been directed toward promoting and advocating for women's human rights organizations. Since 2016, she has been an independent ambassador and expert at conferences, summits, and other events in Poland, Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Belgium, Estonia, Spain, Greece, and the United Kingdom, dedicated to the challenges and consequences of Russia's war against Ukraine. From 2017 to 2019, she worked as chief director of the Lesya Ukrainka Lviv Academic Drama Theater. From 2019 to 2020, she was a co-author of the concept for the main exhibition of the First Barrack of the "Territory of Terror" Memorial Museum of Totalitarian Regimes in Lviv. From 2021 to 2022, she headed the Department of Social Projects at the Nowy Teatr International Culture Center in Warsaw. From 2022 to 2023, she was co-director of the German theater festival Theatertreffen (Berliner Festspiele) in Berlin. In 2023, she returned to Ukraine, and at the beginning of 2024, she voluntarily joined the Defense Forces of Ukraine. She began her service in the 1st Operational Purpose Battalion "Rubizh" (military unit 3018) as an external pilot (operator) of a UAV in the 2nd section of the reconnaissance-strike complex, carrying out work in the Lyman direction. At the beginning of 2025, she transferred to the Separate Artillery Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine (military unit 3101) to the position of operator of the 2nd section of the fire control and artillery reconnaissance unit's control post. Over time, she headed the artillery reconnaissance control post of the division, organizing the work of artillery reconnaissance in the Pokrovsk, Kupiansk, and later Kharkiv directions.