Culture

The Hidden Canon: Discover Ukrainian literary classics

A Kyiv Independent project backed by the Ukrainian Institute

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Symon Petliura, Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian People's Army, photographed in 1919.
Culture

The many deaths of Symon Petliura

by Kate Tsurkan

A century ago, on May 25, 1926, an otherwise ordinary afternoon in Paris’ bohemian Latin Quarter was disrupted by a barrage of gunshots, leaving one of Ukraine’s famous military leaders dead in the street. “I emptied my revolver,” Samuel “Scholem” Schwartzbard, the Jewish-Ukrainian man who killed Symon Petliura, told the court, as quoted by Time magazine in 1927. “A policeman came up quietly and said: ‘Is that enough?’ I answered: ‘Yes.’ He said: ‘Then give me your revolver.’ I gave him the re

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'No comment': Why questions on Ukraine's reforms go unanswered by EU officials

"We don't comment on comments." "We won't comment on an ongoing investigation." "That's a domestic issue, and so we won't comment." If you hang around EU press briefings for a while, you will hear these reasons and many more for not answering your question. Requests for comment on Ukraine can, like any other topic, go unanswered, but sometimes for reasons you would not get elsewhere. And it's not that the EU isn't bothered. In February, senior EU officials shared with the Kyiv Independent thei

President Volodymyr Zelensky at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Aug. 17, 2025.

Exclusive: EU aiming to advance Ukraine's membership slightly faster than planned

The next step on Ukraine and Moldova's EU accession path could happen slightly earlier than expected, with EU and national diplomats confirming to the Kyiv Independent that everybody is working towards June 15 as the day to open the first of six so-called "enlargement clusters." Ukraine and Moldova's EU applications are proceeding in tandem, and further formal progress has been blocked for a year by Hungary, chiefly over 11 demands from the government in Budapest to grant additional rights to t

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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A charred Russian KAMAZ armored vehicle sits by the side of the road, the latest victim of a Ukrainian drone strike. Two Ural heavy recovery trucks can be seen parked either side, while several Russian mechanics attempt to replace the vehicle's melted tires. Another incoming Ukrainian drone dives, nearly silently, towards the recovery operation, aiming directly for the Russian soldiers. The footage cuts out just before impact. The video is just one of many that have flooded social media in rec

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