A thousand years of history through its people: warriors and poets, scientists and artists. Pick an era or a field - or just browse.
Click a region to see the people born there.
Europe 11
North America 1
Asia 2
Birthplace by one of the versions (not known for sure)
Region borders: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), geoBoundaries; continents: Natural Earth
1976–2015
Donetsk airport defender "Natrii"
When his captors demanded to know who the machine gunner was, Ihor Branovytskyi stepped forward himself - so his wounded comrades would be spared. Call sign "Natrii", he had just carried them out of a bombed terminal at Donetsk airport. Hero of Ukraine, posthumously. Killed in captivity, 2015.
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1973–2015
Fire-support platoon commander
A businessman who hadn't held a rifle in sixteen years went back to war in 2014 and became his battalion's go-to man for fixing weapons. Senior Lieutenant Ivan Zubkov, call sign “Krab”, commanded a fire-support platoon at Donetsk airport. Hero of Ukraine, posthumously, 2015.
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b. c. 2000
Hero of Ukraine, Mariupol defender
He took the call sign “Horus”, after the ancient Egyptian god of the sky and war. He joined Azov at 18, and at 22 was defending besieged Mariupol when he was made a Hero of Ukraine. After Azovstal fell he spent four months in Russian captivity before coming home.
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b. c. 1994
Azov intelligence officer “Gendalf”
A titanium hook in place of his left hand, an artificial right eye. And it was he who spoke to the world's press for the defenders of besieged Azovstal in 2022. Azov intelligence officer Illia “Gendalf” Samoilenko went on to survive 120 days of captivity in solitary confinement.
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b. c. 1988
Assault soldier, veterans’ leader
On paper she was a seamstress; in fact she was an assault soldier fighting to free the Luhansk region. Andriana Susak-Arekhta volunteered for the war in 2014, then helped found the Women Veterans Movement so that women in the army would no longer be “invisible”.
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1996–2022
Combat medic
At 20 she walked into the enlistment office on her own to become a military medic. Medical service sergeant Kateryna Stupnytska carried the wounded out under fire and was killed in Kyiv oblast on 8 March 2022. Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
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1892–1963
Officer of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen
Legend says she was the first woman officer in the world. The real story: she disguised herself as a man to join the Sich Riflemen Legion, earned officer rank in battle in 1915, spent two years a prisoner of war, and later ten years in a Soviet labour camp for "Ukrainian nationalism."
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b. c. 1980
Marine, defender of Azovstal
Two photos of him, one at Azovstal and one after captivity, went around the world. Senior Sergeant Mykhailo Dianov of the 36th Marine Brigade defended Mariupol with a badly wounded arm, survived Olenivka, and once freed gave away 23.4 million hryvnias in donations to treat fellow soldiers.
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