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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
Culture

'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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Russia's election is over. Could mobilization be next?

Nobody expected Russia's parliamentary election to wrest power from President Vladimir Putin, with preliminary results on Sept. 21 showing the Kremlin-backed United Russia party winning once again with nearly 58% of the vote. Instead, the question after the election is whether, when, and in what form the Kremlin will launch a new mobilization wave that Kyiv has warned could follow the vote — and which Russia may ultimately need to pursue its war objectives. Russia remains committed to capturin

Moscow City skyscrapers are seen through barbed wire in Moscow, Russia, on April 25, 2026.

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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All of the EU's 3,000 sanctions against individuals helping Russia's war effort could be extinguished overnight if Brussels, Paris, and Azerbaijan fail to find a compromise by Sept. 21, EU diplomats told the Kyiv Independent. The EU is set to renew the sanctions against Russia-linked individuals on Sept. 21. The package accounts for about half of the EU's total sanctions listings. Given that Russia has not changed its behavior towards Ukraine since 2022, the vote to renew sanctions against tho

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