Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for clarity. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it dramatically changed the continent. The largest conventional war in Europe since World War II demanded Western leaders move away from their peacetime thinking and step in decisively to
In late April 2024, in central Kyiv, heavy cranes began dismantling a sculpture erected to commemorate 17th-century Pereiaslav Treaty between the Cossacks and Muscovites, symbolically closing a chapter of a shared history. It was the very same agreement lauded by Russian President Vladimir Putin as supposed evidence of Ukraine's historical
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law in 2023 officially changing the date of Ukraine's World War II commemoration to May 8, aligning it with most of Europe and indicating a full break from the Soviet-era holiday.
The Pereiaslav Council of 1654 saw the Cossacks, inhabitants of modern-day Ukraine, enter into an alliance with Moscow against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Odesa City Council's historical and toponymic commission has proposed renaming three streets and one square named after Russian historical figures, the city council announced on April 4.
Ukraine's Parliamentary Committee on Regional Development supported the renaming of seven more cities and 44 villages, whose names do not meet the standards of Ukrainian language or refer to Russian or Soviet names, lawmaker Roman Lozynskyi wrote on X on April 4.
The word Cossack comes from the Turkic word meaning “free man” or “outlaw.” True to this moniker, Ukraine’s Cossacks — a semi-nomadic militaristic group originating somewhere in the 15th century — are renowned as sovereign warriors and pioneers of independence in Ukraine. Deeply ingrained in Ukrainian national mythology, particularly through the
Like any true detective novel, Andrey Kurkov’s “The Silver Bone” starts off with a brutal murder and endeavors to maintain high stakes until its final pages. The novel, now available to English-language readers in translation by Boris Dralyuk, was recently longlisted for the International Booker Prize, one of the
Ukraine's Parliamentary Committee on Regional Development adopted a decision to rename five cities and 104 villages that were given Russian or Soviet names, lawmaker Roman Lozynskyi announced on social media on March 20.
In nearly every village, town, and city across Ukraine today, you can spot some kind of monument to the 19th-century poet and artist Taras Shevchenko. Following Ukraine’s independence in 1991 and the Euromaidan Revolution in 2014, many of them replaced statues of 20th-century Bolshevik revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin that
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently weaponized and distorted history throughout his time in power since 2000. In a recent interview with U.S. far-right commentator Tucker Carlson, Putin went back more than 1,000 years to justify
“Today, Russia inflicted yet another blow to our heritage, once again proving that the Russian Federation is purposefully destroying our (Ukraine’s) material culture to erase Ukrainians as a nation," Acting Culture Minister Rostyslav Karandieiev said.
Unity Day, observed on Jan. 22 in Ukraine as a state holiday, typically commemorates the 1919 unification of eastern and western Ukraine. But this year, the date garnered attention for a decree signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky relating to modern-day Russian territories that were historically populated by Ukrainians. The decree
In the midst of a full-blown agoraphobic episode, the unnamed narrator of Tanja Maljartschuk’s novel “Forgottenness,” becomes engrossed in reading old newspapers. Asked by her increasingly concerned partner what she’s looking for, she simply tells him: “I want to understand what time is.” “Time consumes everything living by
Ukraine will take steps to research, publicize, and protect the histories of Ukrainians living in parts of modern-day Russia that have been historically inhabited by Ukrainians, according to a decree signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Jan. 22.
In early March 2023, a video surfaced online showing the execution of a Ukrainian prisoner of war. The unarmed soldier’s last words were “Slava Ukraini” – a Ukrainian national salute that means “Glory to Ukraine” – before he was shot multiple times and collapsed to his death. Ukrainian officials condemned the
On Aug. 24, 2023, Ukraine marked its 32nd Independence Day. But is Ukraine really just 32 years old? The Kyiv Independent addressed this question to historians. Everything you didn’t know about Ukraine’s flagAt a small exhibit at the National History Museum in Kyiv on Ukraine’s flag, one
At a small exhibit at the National History Museum in Kyiv on Ukraine’s flag, one notices something particular about the flags from the Soviet times and early days of independence: they’re homemade — sewn by hand with different fabrics of slightly different blues and yellows, the result of a
For many people worldwide, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine appeared unprecedented and unthinkable. However, for those familiar with Ukrainian history, it unfortunately represented a familiar pattern. In his latest book, "The Russo-Ukrainian War: A Return to History," the historian Serhii Plokhy explores how the myths deeply intertwined with Russian statehood
Kyivan Rus was one of the most developed states of medieval Europe, lasting from around the late ninth to the mid-thirteenth century. It played a significant role in the history of the continent and the future East Slavic nations. The territories of Kyivan Rus included much of modern-day Ukraine, Belarus,
The 90s is an overlooked period in contemporary Ukrainian literature – unlike Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine – and the setting alone makes Oksana Lutsyshyna’s award-winning novel “Ivan and Phoebe” an achievement. Now available in Nina Murray's English translation from the U.S. publisher Deep Vellum, Lutsyshyna’s novel is
Editor’s Note: This article was updated to reflect international recognition of the Holodomor. This article contains graphic photos and descriptions. The Holodomor, which means “murder by starvation” in Ukrainian, is widely considered to be one of Ukraine’s most devastating national tragedies. A man-made famine brought on by the
When the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty in July 1990 to gain greater rights and freedoms within the Soviet Union, ridding the country of its nuclear weapons was one of its top priorities. Ukraine had just suffered enormously from the Chornobyl nuclear power plant accident in
The Chornobyl nuclear accident occurred on April 26, 1986, at around 1 a.m. when one of the plant’s nuclear reactors exploded during a planned test. The explosion forever marred the surrounding environment and contaminated a 150,000-square-kilometer swath of land in the nexus between Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.
Editor's Note: This is episode 1 of "Ukraine's True History," a video and story series by the Kyiv Independent. The series is funded by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting within the program “Ukraine Forward: Amplifying Analysis.” The program is financed by the MATRA Programme of the Embassy of
Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in February 2014 amid the deadliest days of the EuroMaidan Revolution that eventually ousted Ukraine's then-President Viktor Yanukovych. While Yanukovych's pro-Russian regime was killing protesters in central Kyiv, around 30,000 Russian troops crossed into Crimea, taking hold of the 27,000-square-kilometer (10,400-square-mile) peninsula
On a cold day in 1918, a young student battalion began digging trenches to fortify their positions near Kyiv. They were filled with dreams of independent Ukraine and stood up to another of Russia’s attempts to subjugate their land. As about 5,000 Bolshevik troops came to seize Kyiv,
Ukraine’s Orange Revolution was a series of protests, held mostly in Kyiv, that lasted from November 2004 to January 2005 as a response to election fraud. After reports that the results of the Nov. 21, 2004, presidential election run-off between ex-Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko and then Prime Minister Viktor
The EuroMaidan Revolution is often credited with being the single most consequential event in Ukraine's modern history. After pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych took power in 2010, the political and business landscape in Ukraine was gradually deteriorating. In November 2013, Yanukovych refused to sign the long-awaited Association Agreement with the European
(Updated: )
