Main image: Anastasia Fomitchova, in the Dnipro region in July 2025, during a rotation with the volunteer battalion Hospitallers. LP/Pierre Alonso
Ukrainian writer, political scientist, and former paramedic of the volunteer battalion Hospitallers, Anastasia Fomitchova, has become one of the winners of the French literary prize named after André Malraux.
This information is published on the official website of the prize.
Fomitchova was recognized for her book Volia: Engagée volontaire dans la résistance ukrainienne (Воля. Доброволиця в українському опорі).
She won in the category of “Socially Conscious Fiction.”
“I am greatly honored to announce that Volia received the André Malraux Prize, awarded annually for works devoted to human destiny, written in the French language,” the writer noted on her LinkedIn page.
The book was published in September 2025 by the French publishing house Grasset.
“Volia is a Ukrainian word that has no exact equivalent in French, but can be translated as ‘will’ or ‘freedom.’ The word embodies the determination of an entire nation and serves as the leitmotif of the story Anastasiia Fomichova presents here. It is not only a narrative about Ukrainian resistance but also a historical exploration of the roots of a conflict that has lasted over a century. Through her personal and family history, the violent legacy of the USSR emerges: the Holodomor—a man-made famine organized by Stalin that killed millions of Ukrainians; the mechanisms of the Soviet nomenklatura, to which Anastasiia’s grandfather belonged; and, of course, the Chernobyl disaster, which forced her mother to move to France in the 1990s. This is a poignant and harrowing story, a tribute to those who sacrificed themselves so that Europe could remain free,” reads the book’s annotation.
The André Malraux Prize annually recognizes a literary work devoted to human existence, written or translated into French, as well as an essay on art published during the year or in the process of being published.
Anastasia Fomitchova is a political scientist, writer, and former paramedic of the Hospitallers battalion. She was born in Kyiv and raised in France. Her research and publications primarily focus on the connections between war, non-state actors, oligarchs, corruption, and the institutional transformation of the Ukrainian state.
In 2017, she joined the medical battalion Hospitallers, which evacuates wounded soldiers from the front lines in Ukraine. With the start of the full-scale invasion, she paused her doctoral studies and returned to Ukraine to participate in the country’s defense.
