Culture

The Hidden Canon: Discover Ukrainian literary classics

A Kyiv Independent project backed by the Ukrainian Institute

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A pair of soldiers stand back-to-back as they hold their rifles in an undated photo.
Culture

Ukraine's wartime action thriller 'Killhouse' reaches global audience on Netflix

by Kate Tsurkan

Ukraine's new action film "Killhouse" is set to reach a global audience, hitting the Netflix streaming platform on June 26 in Ukraine, with international distribution planned for autumn. Few scenes hit as hard in "Killhouse" as when Ukrainian soldiers decide to launch a high-risk mission to rescue a near-death civilian from the gray zone, a territory sandwiched between Ukrainian and Russian lines. In the film, the Russian commander watching them from his position assumes that the civilian bein

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Euroclear takes frozen assets dispute against Russia to court in Brussels

Euroclear, a Belgium-based financial market infrastructure provider, has filed a lawsuit against the Bank of Russia in a Brussels commercial court, challenging a Moscow ruling that ordered it to pay 200 billion euros (approximately $230 billion) in damages, Belgian media reported.

Who is Vadym Iermolaiev, the sanctioned tycoon injured in the Monaco attack?

Ukrainian businessman Vadym Iermolaiev, who faced an assassination attempt in Monaco on June 29, is little-known nationwide but wielded immense influence in the city of Dnipro. Iermolaiev is controversial. He has renounced his Ukrainian citizenship and has been sanctioned by Ukraine due to alleged collaboration with Russia. He denies the accusations. Meanwhile, Iermolaiev’s son is being investigated in connection with illegal call centers in Ukraine. The Kyiv Independent explains who Iermola

The problem at the top of Ukraine's judiciary

"Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes" is an idiom often attributed to American statesman Benjamin Franklin. In Ukraine, another certainty has emerged over the years: society's persistent demand for judicial reform — and the judiciary's equally persistent resistance to it. Following the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, Ukraine's highest court was expected to become a flagship of the country's Western-backed reform agenda. Instead, the Supreme Court has become mired in controve

Not only walls — rebuilding a young generation's right to belong

When a russian strike hit the building in Sumy where our teenagers met each week, I was sure we had lost them. They were frightened; some could not stop shaking. They had felt the blast. We brought in psychologists without asking for anything in return. Less than two weeks later, the same teenagers found a new venue and finished the program. I have returned to that moment many times since. The courage of those youngsters astonished me. They had found a place where their voice counted, and they

Children play soccer next to a damaged building following shelling in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on May 6, 2023.

About Culture

Our reporting on literature, films, art, and traditions from Ukraine and the latest news on culture in Eastern Europe.

Ukrainian culture
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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