Over the past three years of full-scale war, Ukraine’s cultural figures have shifted from focusing solely on their craft to becoming diplomats, advocating for their culture abroad as the Russian army continues its relentless attempt to destroy it. At the same time, within Ukraine itself, a resurgence of national
The Kyiv Independent's Kate Tsurkan sits down with Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko to discuss the role of writers and intellectuals in wartime, the importance of decolonization in Ukraine’s education, and why she wouldn't share a stage with Russian artists until Ukraine's victory.
Half of the human beings alive today are descended from the Yamnaya, a group that lived in what is now Ukraine 5,000 years ago, according to new DNA research led by David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School.
Listening to right-leaning alternative media in the U.S., one might come away with the impression — albeit without evidence — that Ukraine is irredeemably corrupt, President Volodymyr Zelensky is a dictator, and Russia’s invasion was somehow justified. On a December episode of comedian Tim Dillon’s podcast, podcaster Joe Rogan
When President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at the White House on Feb. 28 to discuss ending the war that had inflicted tremendous tragedy on his country since its escalation in 2022, he was asked a question he likely least expected to hear at such a critical moment. "Why don't you wear
For decades, if not more, English speakers the world over referred to Ukraine’s capital as Kiev, pronouncing it kee-yev. Few people knew they were using the Russian name for the city. The city is pronounced keeiv in Ukrainian and is transliterated correctly into English as Kyiv. In fact, until
The movie won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actress (Mikey Madison), Best Director (Sean Baker), Best Editing, and Best Original Screenplay (Sean Baker).
The measure, which will take effect on March 3, comes in response to cases in which men used their permits to stay abroad longer than permitted.
Vitalii Kokoshko, a Ukrainian director of commercials and veteran of the Ukrainian advertising industry, was killed in Russia's war, his daughter Olha Kokoshko wrote on Facebook on Feb. 25.
The Kyiv Independent has presented its first-ever magazine, “The Power Within,” as a record of Ukrainian resilience and life three years into Russia's full-scale invasion. This special edition marks a departure from the solely digital presence that the Kyiv Independent has maintained since its foundation in November 2021. It was
I bet you woke up this morning, read the world news, and couldn’t believe it — how is this really happening? Has the world truly plunged into total chaos and madness? You just want to wake up from this nightmare, but instead, it keeps insisting on becoming the new normal
The specter of nuclear war cast a long shadow over the 20th century, serving as a reminder of humanity's capacity for self-destruction. Now, as the world seems to shrug off Russia’s nuclear saber-rattling against Ukraine — and by extension, all of humanity — a haunting question calls for an answer: Have
The film "Rock, Paper, Scissors" won the Best British Short Film nomination at the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) on Feb. 16.
Singer Vadim Stroykin reportedly fell from the window of his 10th-floor apartment while officers were investigating an alleged donation to Ukraine's Armed Forces.
When Oleg Rostovtsev hovered between life and death after a serious operation last April, he asked friends and family to do something that, until recently, had been impossible — to pray for him by reading the Tehillim, the Hebrew Book of Psalms, in Ukrainian. Hebrew or Ukrainian, he requested, just not
For some, Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts evoke images of coal mines, industrial sprawl, and Russian-speaking culture oriented toward Moscow. Yet to accept this as the regions’ defining reality is to ignore a deeper truth: a Ukrainian heritage that Russia has spent centuries attempting to erase. In the wake
Russia has been banned from participating in the Eurovision Song Contest since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In times of war, the fundamental questions of survival, morality, and identity not only dominate the discourse but also expose the fissures in global political ideologies. Amid the clamor of media narratives and entrenched partisan frameworks, a few voices manage to rise above the fray, offering incisive critiques and grappling
Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov’s statue was removed from Kyiv’s Pechersk district for symbolizing Russia’s imperial past and his cruel experiments on humans and animals, the Kyiv city administration said on Jan. 27.
Russian actor Yura Borisov, who has previously starred in Russian propaganda films and illegally visited Russian-occupied Crimea, has received an Academy Award nomination for his role in the film "Anora."
This marks the second consecutive year a Ukrainian documentary has been nominated for an Academy Award.
Fleeing a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russian forces collectively stole more than 33,000 historical artifacts and works of art. This museum theft is the largest in Europe since World War II.
I first visited the looted museums of Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine, in May 2024. At the time, my team at the Kyiv Independent’s War Crimes Investigations Unit and I were beginning an investigation into the illegal export of artifacts from Kherson to occupied Crimea by Russian forces
In 2022, Lithuania’s then-Culture Minister Simonas Kairys decided that performing Russian composer Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet "The Nutcracker" was no longer an appropriate way to celebrate the Christmas season. Lithuania is a staunch supporter of Ukraine, and Kairys, believing that Russian culture could not be separated from
Oleksii Halionka, a 72-year-old Ukrainian educator and philologist, was killed on 3 January 2025 when a Russian missile hit his home in Chernihiv.
IVANO-FRANKIVSK OBLAST — Father Vasyl Diychuk, 41, shows the spot near the river where his village used to build an ice town on Epiphany, celebrated in January. A line of parked cars would stretch for several kilometers — people from all over Ukraine and abroad came to Sokolivka to see the chapels,
The return of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to political life has raised uncomfortable questions about the future, not only within the U.S. but also on the global stage. This is particularly true for countries like Ukraine, which relies on U.S. aid as it’s locked in a
In his latest book, “On Freedom,” American scholar Timothy Snyder establishes a thought-provoking distinction between the word "liberation" and the Ukrainian wartime variant "de-occupation" to probe the fraught but necessary question: When is a person truly free? Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine has left countless settlements in ruins and displaced
Oleksii Bezpaltsev, a 34-year-old poet and prose writer from Kharkiv, was killed in action while performing a combat mission in Kharkiv Oblast, PEN Ukraine reported on Dec. 25.
To understand recent fears about the possible escalation of Russia’s war on Ukraine into a nuclear conflict, we must revisit its beginnings, where the groundwork for this crisis was laid. Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, articulated the wager underpinning Russia’
The Ukrainian documentaries “The Porcelain War” and “Once Upon a Time in Ukraine” have been shortlisted for the 97th Academy Awards, the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Dec. 17.
The latest on literature, films, art, and traditions from Ukraine and the region. Ukrainian culture has survived centuries of Russian attempts to appropriate Ukrainian art, silence Ukrainian artists, and erase the Ukrainian language. Modern Ukrainian writers, filmmakers, and musicians — some of whom are serving on the front lines — continue to develop Ukrainian culture and fight for Ukraine’s future.
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