KI short logo

Culture

A Venetian Gothic facade adorned with banners for the 2026 Venice Biennale, in Venice, Italy, on Feb. 25, 2026.
Culture

What's on at the Venice Biennale? Russian soft power

by Kate Tsurkan

In the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the Russian pavilion is set to return to the Venice Art Biennale with a “musical festival come to life” that serves as “a space for dialogue and exchange.” The pavilion was effectively canceled in 2022 after the artists and curator chosen to represent Russia withdrew in protest of the invasion. At the time, the organizers of the Biennale released a statement praising the decision and condemning “all those who use violence to prevent

More from Culture

NewsLetters

News Feed

Budgetary Permacrisis: Ukraine's fiscal challenges in 2026

Ukraine started 2026 with a sigh of relief. Positive news on debt restructuring, IMF aid disbursement, bumper foreign exchange reserves, and most importantly, a last-minute compromise €90 bn loan from the EU, suggested that Kyiv would have a moment to catch its breath. Three months on, and this optimism is firmly in the rearview mirror. Hungarian and Slovakian obstruction has derailed progress on loan disbursement, reforms needed for unlocking critical multilateral institution financing remain

Exclusive: We discovered what's going on inside Russia's shadow fleet

The vessels are old, their hulls streaked with rust, and their ownership obscured behind layers of shell companies. Yet the tankers that make up Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, the armada used to move sanctioned oil across the globe, are kept running with modern Western technology including Starlink, an investigation by the Kyiv Independent can reveal. To gain an insight into how the shadow fleet operates, the Kyiv Independent spoke to two Ukrainian sailors who claim they unwittingly became p

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.

Read more

Most Popular

Editors' Picks

News Feed