Culture

‘We are f–king fascists’ — Pussy Riot memoir looks at everything wrong with Russia
Culture

‘We are f–king fascists’ — Pussy Riot memoir looks at everything wrong with Russia

by Kate Tsurkan

Upon being released from prison in December 2013 after serving time for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,” Russian political activist Maria Alyokhina observes that she and her fellow Pussy Riot punk group members “arrived in a different country.” Outwardly, Russia sought to convey to the world during this period that it was a serious global power through events such as the Sochi Winter Olympics. The reality, as Alyokhina writes, was completely different: just a few months later, Russi

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'Medieval raids' — fear, uncertainty in Ukraine's Sumy Oblast border region

As Ukraine’s future is debated in distant conference rooms and Ukrainians prepare to mark another wartime Christmas, dozens of residents of a small border village in Sumy Oblast have vanished across the Russian border — taken by force from their homes, with no idea about what awaits them next. On Dec. 20, at least 52 civilians were deported from the village of Hrabovske, located just 200 meters from Russia’s border, after Russian troops detained them two days earlier. "These were civilians, Uk

A Ukrainian army soldier drives a buggy in a frontline area of Sumy Oblast, Ukraine on June 28, 2025.

What's holding up Ukraine-US peace plan: Territories, nuclear plant remain unresolved

As President Volodymyr Zelensky unveiled details of a U.S.-Ukraine draft peace plan on Dec. 24, aimed at ending Russia's full-scale war, two key provisions remain unresolved. The disagreements center on provisions 12 and 14 of the 20-point proposal. Both deal with issues Kyiv calls existential: territories and the future of critical infrastructure. The Kyiv Independent breaks down where negotiations are stalling and what Ukraine is offering instead. Zelensky reveals full 20-point peace plan d

Why Russia sent Ukrainian children to North Korea, explained

The Kyiv Independent’s Myroslava Chauin speaks with Kateryna Rashevska, a legal expert at the Regional Center for Human Rights and a children’s rights activist, about evidence that Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied territories were transferred to a children’s camp in North Korea.

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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Hello, this is Kateryna Hodunova reporting from Kyiv on day 1,399 of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Today's top story: Ukrainian forces struck Russia's sole Il-38N reconnaissance aircraft in the Black Sea on the eve of a submarine's destruction during the Dec. 15 operation, a source from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) told the Kyiv Independent on Dec. 23. Ukrainian underwater drones, known as "Sub Sea Baby," struck a 636.3-class submarine, Varshavyanka — classified as a Kilo-

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