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The Hidden Canon: Discover Ukrainian literary classics

A Kyiv Independent project backed by the Ukrainian Institute

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'Hemingway Knows Nothing': Ukraine's writers are redefining literature of war
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'Hemingway Knows Nothing': Ukraine's writers are redefining literature of war

by Kate Tsurkan

When war, loss, and unimaginable suffering become routine, a book can offer a kind of lifeline — especially one by a writer who has lived through such an ordeal and tried to make sense of it. At the start of Russia’s full-scale war, some Ukrainians speculated if they’d see the rise of their own Ernest Hemingway: a writer whose books would not only capture the experience of a generation but come to define it. Yet it soon became clear that the old paradigms of war literature no longer spoke to t

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Ukraine’s protest movement has run into a wall

After weeks of protests over the dismissal of former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, the movement is losing momentum as organizers struggle to decide what comes next and President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to ignore their central demand. Zelensky's lack of a public response has caught organizers off guard. While they say the protests have achieved some of their initial goals, they are now uncertain how to pressure the president into reinstating Fedorov. "I've been feeling some total frus

Cheaper than a missile, just as hard to down — Russia's Banderol munition adds strain to Ukraine's air defenses

Odesa, one of southern Ukraine's most popular domestic tourist destinations, has spent much of this summer listening not to the sounds of a beachside holiday, but to air raid alarms — sometimes nearly every hour. "You don't hear the air raid siren because you're in a deep sleep," Yehven, 34, a resident of Odesa, told the Kyiv Independent. "You just wake up at some point to the sound of something with a jet engine flying overhead." "That engine is the scariest part because it sounds like a crui

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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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