The most recently added profiles.
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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1970–2022
Combat medic, Hero of Ukraine
Soldiers called her Mom, and she could turn bewildered newcomers into combat medics in two weeks. Inna Derusova, a nurse from Kryvyi Rih, joined the army in 2015 and was killed in 2022 in Okhtyrka while saving the wounded. Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
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b. c. 1991
Military medic, defender of Mariupol
She found out she was going to be a mother in besieged Mariupol. Military medic Mariana Mamonova spent half a year in Russian captivity while pregnant, came home in an exchange days before giving birth, and later set up a foundation for women who survived captivity.
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1883–1919
Colonel who led the Crimean campaign
In April 1918 his men raced across the Chonhar bridge into Crimea on a rail trolley, and Ukrainian flags went up over ships of the Black Sea Fleet. A year later Colonel Petro Bolbochan was shot on the sentence of a court of his own army, the army of the UNR.
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b. c. 1990
Border guard, call sign "Wolf"
On 24 February 2022, border guard Roman Hrybov responded to a Russian ultimatum on Snake Island with four iconic words that became a global symbol of Ukrainian resistance. He spent a month in captivity before release, then learned of his worldwide fame.
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b. 1995
Poet and Marine
She wrote her poems “on the out-breath after a completed mission,” and they won Ukraine’s top arts prize. Yaryna Chornohuz is a poet and a combat medic in the Marine Corps who signed up in 2020 and has fought in the Luhansk, Donetsk and Kherson regions.
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1969–2022
Photographer, volunteer “Linza”
Her surname means “blossomed”, and she grew roses for a living. A teacher who photographed the Maidan protests, Iryna Tsvila volunteered for the Sich battalion in 2014. She was killed in the first days of the full-scale war, defending Irpin.
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b. c. 1974
Commander of the 36th Marine Brigade
Russian troops captured him once before, in Crimea in 2014, and left him with broken ribs. Eight years later, as a colonel and Hero of Ukraine, he commanded the 36th Marine Brigade's defence of Mariupol - and was taken prisoner again.
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b. 1993
Hero of Ukraine, marine officer
When his brigade's commander was taken prisoner, marine officer Yevhenii Bova stepped up to defend Mariupol himself — and was named a Hero of Ukraine for it. Weeks later the Russians captured him too; he spent five months as a prisoner of war before an exchange brought him home in September 2022.
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1995–2022
French legionnaire and machine gunner
Why was a Ukrainian called “Mali”? It is the African country where he served with the French Foreign Legion. In 2022 Yevhenii Brakh left a settled life in France, came home to defend Ukraine and became a machine gunner in the Special Operations Forces. He was killed that same year.
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1993–2022
MiG-29 fighter pilot
A village boy from western Ukraine learned the trumpet at music school, then at 13 left for a military boarding school so he could fly. Major Stepan Tarabalka defended Ukraine’s sky in a MiG-29 in the first weeks of the full-scale war. Killed in 2022; Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
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b. 1982
Deputy commander of Azov
The maple stands for Canada, the birch for Russia, and the true symbol of Ukraine is the kalyna, the guelder rose. That is how Sviatoslav Palamar chose his call sign. Deputy commander of Azov, in 2022 he held Mariupol and Azovstal until 20 May. Hero of Ukraine.
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b. 1968
Paramedic “Taira”
She was given a camera for a Prince Harry documentary and used it to film the siege of Mariupol. Yuliia “Taira” Paievska had been saving the wounded in Donbas since 2014; in 2022 she spent three months in Russian captivity. Winner of the US International Women of Courage Award.
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b. c. 1995
Azov photographer and press officer
The world saw the defence of Azovstal through his eyes. Dmytro “Orest” Kozatskyi, Azov's press officer from Malyn, photographed the defenders in the plant's tunnels and posted the pictures just before going into captivity. While he was a prisoner, his series “The Light Will Win” won awards.
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b. 1991
Azov commander, defender of Mariupol
His degree says English teacher, not military academy. At 26 Denys Prokopenko, call sign Redis, took command of Azov, and in 2022 he led the defence of besieged Mariupol and the Azovstal steelworks for over 80 days. Hero of Ukraine.
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1914–1986
Head of the underground Red Cross
Why did prisoners of many nations in Vladimir Central Prison silently salute a woman at a laundry window? Kateryna Zarytska had led the underground Ukrainian Red Cross, served as Roman Shukhevych’s courier and spent about 30 years behind bars.
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b. 1992
Commander of the marines at Azovstal
“I am not a Catholic, I am Orthodox.” So began the letter to Pope Francis that marine commander Serhii Volynskyi, call sign Volyna, wrote from encircled Mariupol. In April 2022 he led part of the 36th Brigade into Azovstal to join Azov. Hero of Ukraine.
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b. 1994
Fighter pilot, “Karaya”
He never dreamed of flying as a kid, yet became a pilot the whole country knows by his call sign. On 12 October 2022 Vadym Voroshylov, “Karaya”, downed five Shahed drones, then steered his damaged MiG-29 away from homes below before ejecting. Hero of Ukraine.
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1996–2022
Marine combat engineer
A welder who had worked in Poland and studied software engineering became a combat engineer in the marines. On the first day of the full-scale war, Sailor Vitalii Skakun volunteered to blow up a bridge near Henichesk to hold back a Russian tank column, and was killed. Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
NewRead
b. 2001
Paramedic and singer “Ptashka”
In spring 2022 her singing in the basements of Azovstal went viral. Paramedic Kateryna “Ptashka” Polishchuk from the Ternopil region saved the wounded in besieged Mariupol and sang for her comrades in the plant’s bomb shelters. She survived four months of captivity and went back to the army.
NewRead
1993–2024
F-16 pilot, “Moonfish”
Two classmates from flight school became the faces of Ukraine’s campaign for F-16 fighter jets. One of them, Oleksii Mes, call sign “Moonfish”, later flew the F-16 himself, defending the sky against Russian missiles. Killed in 2024; Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
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1973–2022
Combat medic of the Aidar battalion
On paper she was a seamstress; in fact she was saving the wounded on the front line. Olha Semydianova, a mother of twelve, six of them adopted, went to the front in 2016 and became a combat medic of the Aidar battalion. She was killed in the first days of the full-scale war.
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b. 1983
Head of the SBU (2022–2026)
More than 40 Russian strategic bombers hit in a single day: Operation Spiderweb on 1 June 2025 was commanded by Vasyl Maliuk. The general from Korostyshiv led the Security Service of Ukraine from 2022 to 2026. Hero of Ukraine.
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1871–1942
Orientalist, secretary of the Academy
At 18 he knew 8 languages, and over his life he mastered more than 50 more. Ahatanhel Krymskyi laid the foundations of Oriental studies in Ukraine, became one of the first members of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and died in custody after his arrest by the NKVD.
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1887–1964
Innovator of modern sculpture
Can a hole be part of a sculpture? Kyiv-born Alexander Archipenko proved it can: he was the first to bring Cubism into sculpture, made the void and the hole part of the form, and influenced modern art in Europe and America.
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1932–1999
Operatic tenor of the Kyiv Opera
Until he was 30 he taught descriptive geometry at a Donetsk institute and took private singing lessons. Then came the Kyiv Opera, La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera. Anatolii Solovianenko is one of the best-known Ukrainian tenors and a Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
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1865–1944
Metropolitan of the UGCC
A count from a Polonized family became a monk and led the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for 43 years. Under Nazi occupation, Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi hid Jews in monasteries and condemned the killings in his letter “Thou Shalt Not Kill”.
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1993–2023
Fighter pilot, “Juice”
A boy who photographed planes as a teenager grew up to fly MiG-29s and defend the sky over Kyiv. Andrii Pilshchykov, call sign “Juice”, lobbied US senators to give Ukraine F-16s. Killed in 2023; Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
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b. 1976
Footballer, Ballon d'Or winner
He scored his first European goal against Bayern at 18, and in 2004 he won the Ballon d'Or. Andriy Shevchenko won the Champions League with Milan, became Ukraine’s all-time top scorer and later its coach, and in 2024 was elected UAF president.
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c. 1025–c. 1075
Kyivan princess, Queen of France
A French king went all the way to Kyiv for a bride. In 1051 Anna, daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, became Queen of France, sat on the royal council and raised a future king, Philip I. Today she is a symbol of the old ties between Rus’ and Europe.
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1926–2016
Economist, Club of Rome member
Taken to Germany for forced labor as a teenager, he started out as a lumberjack in Canada and went on to run the International Management Institute in Geneva for 18 years. After 1991 the economist from the Ternopil region helped build independent Ukraine.
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c. 1595–1657
Hetman, founder of the Cossack state
A Cossack captain lost his homestead to a lawless official, and within a year he was leading an uprising that shifted the balance of power in Europe. Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi went on to build a Cossack state, the Hetmanate.
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1941–2012
Stage and screen actor, Hero of Ukraine
More than a hundred roles on stage and as many on screen, from Don Juan to Tevye, and in between a very real job as Minister of Culture. Bohdan Stupka was one of Ukraine’s greatest actors and for decades the face of the Ivan Franko Theater.
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1918–2020
Electric welding scientist
Did you know that metal was first welded aboard a spacecraft in 1969, using a unit built by Kyiv’s Institute of Electric Welding? The institute’s director, Borys Paton, headed the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for 58 years.
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c. 1201–c. 1264
First king of Rus’
He lost his father and became a refugee at four, and half a century later he received the crown of the King of Rus’ from the pope. Danylo of Halych spent thirty years winning back his father’s state and kept it alive between the Horde and Europe.
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1995–2023
Commander of the “Da Vinci Wolves”
A boy nicknamed “Da Vinci” for his gift for drawing, he volunteered for the front at 18 and rose to command the “Da Vinci Wolves” battalion. The first volunteer made a Hero of Ukraine in his lifetime. He was killed near Bakhmut in 2023.
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c. 1516–1563
One of the first Cossack leaders
On tiny Baida Island near Khortytsia, archaeologists found the remains of his fortress. From there Prince Dmytro Vyshnevetskyi led campaigns against the Tatars and Turks in the 1550s, and a folk song about the Cossack Baida made him a symbol of defiance.
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1722–1794
The wandering philosopher
He could have been a monk or a professor; instead he became a wandering philosopher with no property and no post. Hryhorii Skovoroda, an 18th-century poet and teacher, taught that happiness lies in knowing yourself and in “kindred work”.
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1889–1972
Pioneer of aviation and helicopters
He started building a helicopter as a student, before his first airplane. Kyiv-born Igor Sikorsky built the world’s first multi-engine heavy aircraft and, in the US, where he began as a schoolteacher, the world’s first mass-produced helicopter.
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1845–1916
Biologist, Nobel laureate
He saw the body’s cells “eating” microbes and worked out how immunity works. For that, Ilya Mechnikov, a biologist from the Kharkiv region, won the Nobel Prize in 1908. He worked in Odesa and later at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
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1844–1930
Painter of the Zaporozhian Cossacks
Everyone recognizes the Cossacks writing their letter to the Ottoman sultan. Ilya Repin, born in Chuhuiv in Sloboda Ukraine, spent 11 years on that painting. He was long called a Russian painter; in 2023 the Met relabeled him Ukrainian.
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1964–2024
Linguist and member of parliament
The poster “Language is the foundation of your life” was dreamed up by a Lviv linguist who later taught Ukrainian on YouTube. Iryna Farion, a Lviv Polytechnic professor and Svoboda MP (2012–2014), repeatedly sparked major controversies. In 2024 she was shot dead in Lviv.
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1998–2024
Journalist and combat medic
She made films about the children of Donbas and went to the front as a paramedic from the age of 17. Iryna “Cheka” Tsybukh, a manager at Suspilne, led a Hospitallers crew in the full-scale war. She was killed in 2024. Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
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c. 1618–1664
Colonel and ally of Khmelnytskyi
When the khan betrayed the Cossacks at Berestechko and captured Khmelnytskyi, the encircled army chose Ivan Bohun as acting hetman, and he led most of it out. A colonel of Kalnyk who stood up to both Poland and Moscow.
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1931–2022
Sixtiers critic and dissident
In a hall of 800 seats he spoke up about secret arrests, one of the first public protests against repression in the USSR. Ivan Dziuba, a Sixtiers critic and author of Internationalism or Russification?, later became minister of culture and a Hero of Ukraine.
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1856–1916
Writer, scholar and thinker
Austria jailed him several times; the University of Vienna made him a doctor of philosophy. Ivan Franko, writer, scholar and journalist, wrote thousands of works and was one of the first to argue for an independent Ukraine.
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1769–1838
Father of modern Ukrainian literature
His Eneida was printed in St. Petersburg in 1798 without his knowledge, and modern Ukrainian literature is dated from that comic poem. Ivan Kotliarevskyi of Poltava also wrote Natalka Poltavka and launched the new Ukrainian theater.
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b. 1936
Painter, creator of “plontanism”
His paintings are made not of brushstrokes but of fine colored lines that interweave and seem to glow. Ivan Marchuk called the technique “plontanism”. The Soviet authorities refused to recognize him; later he won the Shevchenko Prize and became a People’s Artist of Ukraine.
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c. 1639–1709
Hetman and patron of Cossack Baroque
For twenty years he was the Muscovite tsar’s ally; then, in 1708, he went over to the Swedish king to free Ukraine from Moscow’s rule. Ivan Mazepa was the hetman whose money built and restored many churches in the Cossack Baroque style.
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1941–1987
Star of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
In a single year, 1964, a student from a Bukovyna village played both Taras Shevchenko and Ivan in Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Ivan Mykolaichuk became the face of Ukrainian poetic cinema, and later made his own films, such as Babylon XX.
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1871–1949
Wrestler, “Champion of Champions”
He started out as a loader in the port of Sevastopol, and posters billed him as the “Champion of Champions”. Ivan Piddubnyi, a strongman from the Cherkasy region, won many international classical wrestling tournaments in the early 20th century and was known as unbeatable.
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c. 1618–1680
Kish otaman of the Zaporozhian Sich
One raid on Kaffa, and about 2,000 captives walked out of Crimean slavery. Ivan Sirko, one of the best-known kish otamans (chief commanders) of the Zaporozhian Sich, fought Crimea and the Ottoman Empire and became a hero of folk legends and dumas.
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1900–1961
Master of folk painting
She was turned away from a college because she had no school certificate. In 1954 her paintings were shown in Paris. Kateryna Bilokur, a self-taught villager from Bohdanivka, created her own style of decorative flower painting.
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1879–1935
Painter, founder of Suprematism
A black square on a white ground, and not a single object. With this 1915 painting Kyiv-born Kazimir Malevich founded Suprematism and became one of the founders of abstract art.
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1968–2015
Singer, frontman of the band Skriabin
A medical school graduate who became Kuzma Skriabin: for more than a quarter of a century Andrii Kuzmenko fronted the band Skriabin, hosted TV shows and wrote a book. He died in a car crash in 2015; posthumously made a Hero of Ukraine.
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1953–1998
American singer of Ukrainian descent
Her voice sold Fords, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, and it sang an Oscar-winning song in a 1977 film, though her name wasn’t in the credits. Kvitka Cisyk, a New Yorker born to emigrants from Lviv, paid for two albums of Ukrainian songs herself.
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1728–1803
The last hetman of the Hetmanate
The son of an ordinary Cossack from Lemeshi became a count at 16, headed the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences before he was 20, and in 1750 took charge of the Hetmanate. Kyrylo Rozumovskyi tried to strengthen it through reforms, but in 1764 Catherine II abolished the hetmancy.
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1928–1979
Director of the classic “Old Men” film
He was thrown out of flight school after a month, yet he made the best-known film about pilots. Leonid Bykov directed and starred in Only “Old Men” Are Going to Battle and became one of the most beloved figures of Ukrainian cinema.
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1951–2018
First astronaut of independent Ukraine
He was picked from 9,000 candidates to fly the Soviet Buran, but he reached space on an American shuttle. In 1997 this test pilot from Chernivtsi Oblast became the first astronaut of independent Ukraine.
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1887–1937
Reformer of Ukrainian theater
Even in a Soviet prison camp he kept staging plays. Les Kurbas, founder of the Molodyi Teatr and the Berezil, made Ukrainian theater the equal of Europe’s modern stages. In 1937 he was shot at Sandarmokh.
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1871–1913
Poet and playwright
She wrote her first poem at nine and, years later, The Forest Song. Lesya Ukrainka, poet and playwright, fought tuberculosis all her life and became, for many, a symbol of strength of spirit.
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1928–2018
Author of the Act of Independence
He spent 72 days waiting to be shot for the idea of Ukraine leaving the USSR. Thirty years later Levko Lukianenko, a lawyer and dissident who spent more than a quarter of a century in camps and exile, wrote Ukraine’s Act of Declaration of Independence.
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b. 1930
Poet of the Sixtiers
Sixteen years between two books: that is how long Soviet censors kept Lina Kostenko, one of the earliest Sixtiers, out of print. They failed to silence her: her novel in verse Marusia Churai later won her the Shevchenko Prize.
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1933–2017
Head of the UGCC 2001–2011, cardinal
He was secretly made a bishop so that, if the underground Church were wiped out, he could enter the USSR posing as a tourist and rebuild it. Liubomyr Huzar went on to return to Ukraine, become a cardinal and, in 2005, move the UGCC’s seat to Kyiv.
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1990–2024
Poet, photographer, SSO soldier
A poet and photographer, call sign “Dali”, he first volunteered for the front back in 2014 and between the wars helped other veterans. PEN Ukraine named his collection Poems from the Embrasure one of the best books of 2023. Killed in 2024; Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
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1990–2022
Athlete and volunteer, “Rugbyist”
A rugby player for Aviator, a Master of Sport in grappling and a leader of Dynamo Kyiv fans, he taught civilians to handle weapons safely even before the war. Maksym Yalovtsov defended Kyiv from the first days of the invasion, then fought behind enemy lines. Killed in 2022.
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1909–1997
Master of folk painting
Picasso himself is said to have bowed before her “artistic miracle”. Nobody can quite prove it, but the fantastic beasts of Mariia Prymachenko, from the Polissia village of Bolotnia, have become a symbol of Ukraine’s resilience.
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1854–1934
Actress, star of Ukrainian theater
She first played Natalka in Natalka Poltavka with an amateur group, and in 1882 she made her professional debut in the very same role. For 40 years Mariia Zankovetska was a star of Ukrainian theater, creating more than 30 roles.
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1833–1907
Writer, a classic of Ukrainian prose
Behind the male pen name Marko Vovchok was Mariia Vilinska. Her Folk Stories (1857) about the lives of serf women were a landmark in Ukrainian literature; Shevchenko called her his “daughter”; and she was the first to translate 15 Jules Verne novels into Russian.
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b. 1943
Crimean Tatar national movement leader
He was driven out of his native Crimea twice: as a baby in 1944 and as a well-known politician in 2014. Mustafa Dzhemilev spent 15 years in Soviet captivity for his people’s right to return home, led the Mejlis for 22 years and became a Hero of Ukraine.
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1841–1895
Thinker, historian and publicist
Thrown out of his university post by the tsarist authorities, he went to Geneva to speak to Europe for the Kyiv Hromada. There Mykhailo Drahomanov published the first Ukrainian political journal and became the mentor of the Galician radicals, including Ivan Franko.
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1866–1934
Historian, head of the Central Rada
He wrote Ukraine’s history in ten volumes, then helped make it: under his leadership the Central Rada declared independence in 1918. Mykhailo Hrushevskyi is the historian without whom it is hard to imagine either Ukrainian scholarship or the Ukrainian state.
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1864–1913
Classic of Ukrainian prose
The Hutsul novella that Sergei Parajanov turned into Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors was written by a man from Vinnytsia in Podillia after a trip to the Carpathians. Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi is one of the great masters of Ukrainian prose and a classic of Ukrainian modernism.
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1913–2002
Pioneering heart surgeon
He was the first in Ukraine to operate on the heart with artificial circulation, and at 84 he had heart surgery himself. Mykola Amosov, heart surgeon and writer, founded an institute in Kyiv that saved thousands of lives and created his own health system.
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1893–1933
Voice of the Executed Renaissance
His slogan “Away from Moscow!” alarmed the Kremlin so much that Stalin warned against it in a letter. Mykola Khvylovy, a writer and pamphleteer of the 1920s, urged Ukrainian culture to look to Europe and became a symbol of the Executed Renaissance.
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1877–1921
Composer of “Shchedryk”
The world sings “Carol of the Bells” and rarely knows it is a Ukrainian New Year’s song. Its arrangement, “Shchedryk”, was made by the composer and choir conductor Mykola Leontovych, and the melody has since been rearranged more than 150 times.
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1842–1912
Father of Ukrainian classical music
Tchaikovsky himself wanted to stage his Taras Bulba, but only in Russian, and the composer said no. Mykola Lysenko laid the foundations of Ukrainian classical music and wrote “Prayer for Ukraine”, which became the country’s spiritual anthem.
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1890–1937
Poet, translator, Neoclassicist leader
Two Latin words, “Ad fontes!” (“To the sources!”), became his slogan in the argument over where Ukrainian literature should go. Mykola Zerov, a sonnet poet and translator of Roman poetry, led the Kyiv Neoclassicists. He was shot at Sandarmokh in 1937.
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2003–2024
Azov combat medic, “Hrienka”
People called him the youngest defender of Azovstal; he called himself “an ordinary soldier”. Nazarii Hryntsevych, an Azov combat medic, survived captivity, went back to the front and led a reconnaissance platoon. Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
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1951–1995
Pop singer, the voice of Smerichka
More than 150 songs, almost all of them in Ukrainian. Nazarii Yaremchuk, from a Bukovyna village, became the voice of Smerichka, sang Ivasiuk’s “Chervona Ruta” with Vasyl Zinkevych, and filled concert halls, sometimes giving two or three concerts a day.
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1888–1934
Leader of the peasant insurgency
He escaped the death sentence only because he had been a minor at the time of the crime. The anarchist Nestor Makhno from Huliaipole led a peasant uprising in southern Ukraine in 1918–1921, fighting both the Whites and the Reds; his legacy is still disputed.
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1809–1852
Classic of world prose
Critics tore his first poem apart, but his next book, stories about a Ukrainian village, made him famous overnight. Gogol wrote in Russian, yet it was his Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka and Taras Bulba that showed the world Ukraine.
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1947–2023
Singer, a voice of Ukrainian song
Stankovych and Skoryk wrote music for her “silver, flute-like” voice. For more than half a century Nina Matviienko sang Ukrainian song, from ancient carols and spring songs to performances with Okean Elzy. A Veriovka Choir soloist and a Hero of Ukraine.
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b. 1952
Dynamo Kyiv striker, Ballon d'Or 1975
211 goals in the Soviet league, a Soviet football record. Oleh Blokhin, Dynamo Kyiv’s striker, became the first Soviet footballer to win the Ballon d'Or in 1975, and as a coach he took Ukraine to its first World Cup.
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b. 1976
Film director, former political prisoner
145 days without food in a Russian penal colony, to demand freedom for others. Film director Oleh Sentsov from Simferopol was seized after the occupation of Crimea in 2014 and given 20 years. A Sakharov Prize laureate, freed in 2019, he joined the army.
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1894–1956
Director of the film Earth
In 1958 critics named his Earth among the 12 best films of all time. At home, though, Oleksandr Dovzhenko was hounded for “nationalism”, Stalin banned his Ukraine in Flames, and the director was never allowed to return to Kyiv.
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1980–2022
Territorial defense sniper, Hero
He was born in Chișinău and moved to Nizhyn in 2008. Oleksandr Matsiievskyi, an electrician, volunteered for the Territorial Defense and fought as a sniper near Bakhmut. His last words as a prisoner, “Slava Ukraini!” (“Glory to Ukraine!”), became a symbol of resilience.
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1906–1942
Poet and OUN activist
“That dog’s language is my language!” By her own account, that is what a poet raised among Russian speakers shouted at a party in Prague in 1934. From then on Olena Teliha spoke only Ukrainian. In 1941 she headed the Writers’ Union in Kyiv; in 1942 the Nazis executed her.
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1918–1995
Writer, author of The Cathedral
Readers welcomed his novel The Cathedral, and the authorities pulled it out of literary life for 20 years. Oles Honchar, a war veteran and long-time head of the Writers’ Union, stood up for the Ukrainian language and culture.
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1889–1956
Classic of Ukrainian humor
In the 1920s only Shevchenko outsold Ostap Vyshnia in print runs. In 1933 the humorist was sentenced to ten years in labor camps, yet he came back to literature and finished his Hunting Smiles.
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1992–2024
Civic activist and aerial scout
His petition against online casinos won more than 25,000 signatures in under a day. Pavlo Petrychenko, a Kyiv activist and Euromaidan participant, served from 2022 as an aerial scout in the 59th Brigade. Killed in 2024; Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
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1873–1945
Hetman of the Ukrainian State
He was hetman for less than eight months in 1918, yet the Academy of Sciences founded then still works today. General Pavlo Skoropadskyi came to power with German backing; his regime was authoritarian, and views of it still differ.
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c. 1691–1803
Last otaman of the Zaporozhian Sich
In 1765 the Zaporozhians elected him otaman against Catherine II’s wishes and kept re-electing him for ten years. After the Sich was destroyed in 1775, the last otaman, Petro Kalnyshevskyi, was sent to the Solovetsky Islands, where he spent 25 years in captivity.
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c. 1582–1622
Hetman, victor at Khotyn
About 4,000 Cossacks took Kaffa, a fortress and a great slave market in Crimea, and freed many captives. They were led by Petro Sahaidachnyi, the hetman who turned the Cossacks into a disciplined army that helped stop the Ottomans at Khotyn in 1621.
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1921–2001
Businessman and philanthropist
He started out in Canada washing dishes and went on to give more than 16 million dollars to Ukrainian studies at Western universities, while living very modestly himself. Petro Yatsyk is the patron behind the International Ukrainian Language Competition.
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c. 910–969
First woman ruler of Kyivan Rus’
The chronicle remembers her revenge on the Derevlianians, but her biggest achievement was putting the state in order. Princess Olha ruled Rus’ for her young son, replaced the dangerous tribute rounds with local centers and was the first ruler of Rus’ to become a Christian.
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1672–1742
Hetman in exile, constitution author
A hetman who, on the day he was elected, signed an agreement limiting his own power. Pylyp Orlyk, Mazepa’s general chancellor, was elected in Bender in 1710, and in more than 30 years of exile he sought allies across Europe to free Ukraine.
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Singer, “guardian of Ukrainian song”
She worked at the car factory in Kremenchuk and first sang on stage with the factory choir. Later Raisa Kyrychenko was called the “guardian of Ukrainian song”: the whole country knew her voice, and the ensemble Churaivna in Poltava was her idea. Hero of Ukraine.
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c. 1505–1558
Wife of Sultan Suleiman I
How did a girl from Rus’, sold at an Istanbul slave market, become the lawful wife of Sultan Suleiman I and the mother of Sultan Selim II? Less is known about the real Roksolana than the legends tell.
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1997–2022
Civic activist and scout
Why did a Kyiv activist go by the call sign “Seneca”? Roman Ratushnyi read the Stoics, was hurt on the Maidan at 16 and later saved Protasiv Yar from developers. A scout with the Kholodnyi Yar Brigade, he was killed near Izium in 2022, aged 24.
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1907–1950
Commander-in-chief of the UPA
An engineer and amateur pianist who, as “Taras Chuprynka”, took command of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in 1943. Roman Shukhevych led the armed underground against Soviet rule for almost six years and was killed in combat; he remains a contested figure.
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b. 1973
Singer, Eurovision 2004 winner
In 2004 the piercing call of a Hutsul trembita rang out on the Eurovision stage in Istanbul, and Ukraine won the contest for the first time. That was Ruslana Lyzhychko from Lviv, who in the winter of 2013–2014 sang the anthem on the Maidan over 500 times.
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1905–1986
Paris Opera dancer and choreographer
A boy from the outskirts of Kyiv who only took up dance as a teenager ran the Paris Opera Ballet for almost 30 years. Serge Lifar created more than 200 ballets and founded the neoclassical style in choreography.
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1924–1990
Visionary film director
Fellini, Truffaut and Godard signed a petition for his release. In Kyiv Sergei Parajanov made Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, a film that won 16 awards at international festivals, and for backing persecuted artists the Soviet authorities jailed him on fabricated charges.
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b. 1963
Pole vaulter, 35 world records
Until 1985 no pole vaulter in the world had cleared 6 metres. Serhii Bubka did it first, went on to break world records 35 times and won six World Championships in a row. He later headed the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (2005–2022).
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1907–1966
Chief Designer of the space age
Two decades before he sent Gagarin into space, he was thrown into a labor camp in Kolyma. Serhii Korolov, a rocket designer from Zhytomyr, led the launches of the first Earth satellite and the first human in space.
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1872–1952
Opera singer (soprano)
In 1904 Puccini’s Madama Butterfly flopped at La Scala. That same year, at the composer’s invitation, Solomiia Krushelnytska sang the title role brilliantly: a soprano from the Ternopil region known on stages across Europe and South America.
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1909–1959
Leader of the OUN-B
In the USSR his surname became a slur; for many Ukrainians it is a symbol of resistance. Stepan Bandera led the OUN-B, whose followers proclaimed the Act of Restoration of the Ukrainian State in 1941. One of the most contested figures in history.
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b. 1975
Singer, frontman of Okean Elzy
A theoretical physicist who wrote his dissertation on supersymmetry, yet became famous as the voice of Okean Elzy. In 1994 Sviatoslav Vakarchuk became the band’s leader and main songwriter; he served twice in parliament and in 2022 began singing for soldiers and civilians.
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1879–1926
Head of the UPR Directory, Chief Otaman
In 1911 he was working as a bookkeeper in Moscow; by 1918 he was Chief Otaman of the Ukrainian People’s Republic army. Symon Petliura helped create the Ukrainian army and became a symbol of the 1917–1921 fight for independence; historians still debate his responsibility for the pogroms.
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1814–1861
National poet of Ukraine
A serf whose freedom was bought with the price of a single portrait, he is now called the national poet of Ukraine. His Kobzar laid the foundations of modern Ukrainian literature and its language.
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1935–1998
Financier, head of the central bank 1992
Look at the first paper hryvnias and you’ll find Vadym Hetman’s signature. He ran the National Bank for only nine months, yet he laid the foundations of independent Ukraine’s banking system. In 1998 he was killed by a hired gunman. Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
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b. 1937
Composer, a classic of modern music
At home his music was hardly played and the Soviet press tore it apart, yet in 1967 he won the Koussevitzky Prize in the United States. Valentin Silvestrov went from the “Kyiv avant-garde” to quiet, meditative music performed around the world.
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1988–2022
Sniper and intelligence officer, Hero
After 2016, billboards in Berdiansk read “Be like Valera”. Valerii Chybinieiev, who grew up in a boarding school, commanded a sniper company of the 79th Air Assault Brigade and became a Hero of Ukraine. He was killed near Hostomel in 2022.
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1939–2002
Visionary coach of Dynamo Kyiv
An engineer on the coach's bench: with a scientist at his side, Valeriy Lobanovskyi measured his players and counted match statistics when hardly anyone did. With that method Dynamo Kyiv won the Cup Winners' Cup twice.
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1938–1985
Poet and human rights defender
The KGB seized and destroyed more than 600 of his poems, and he kept writing. Vasyl Stus, a poet of the Sixtiers and a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, died in a Soviet camp, leaving Palimpsests, a peak of modern Ukrainian poetry.
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1918–1970
Humanist educator
No publisher wanted his main book; later it came out in 25 languages. Vasyl Sukhomlynskyi headed the village school in Pavlysh for more than twenty years and put the child’s personality at the center of schooling.
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1935–1963
Poet of the Sixtiers
He wrote an “Obituary for a Corncob”, a satire on the Soviet system that spread through samvydav. The poet and journalist Vasyl Symonenko published only one collection in his lifetime and died at 28, but his poems became one of the sources of the Sixtiers’ resistance.
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b. 1974
Strongman, World's Strongest Man
Five trams weighing 101.5 tonnes in all: that is the load Vasyl Virastiuk pulled. A former shot putter from Ivano-Frankivsk, he became the World’s Strongest Man in 2004 and IFSA world champion in 2007. In 2021 he became a member of parliament.
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1895–1948
Habsburg archduke, Sich Riflemen colonel
Why did a Habsburg archduke wear an embroidered shirt and sign himself “Vasyl Vyshyvanyi”? Wilhelm von Habsburg chose to be Ukrainian: he commanded the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, served as a colonel of the UPR Army and died in a Soviet prison.
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b. 1947
Reviver of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
He wrote Order No. 1 of the revived Kyiv-Mohyla Academy himself: “I am starting work as rector.” In 1991 the literary scholar Viacheslav Briukhovetskyi led the revival of the Mohyla Academy and built it into a modern university on the North American model.
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1937–1999
Dissident and leader of Rukh
After his first arrest he was thrown into a cell with death-row prisoners to break him at once. It didn’t work: the journalist Viacheslav Chornovil spent more than 13 years in captivity, then became a leader of the fight for independence and head of Rukh.
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1893–1919
Film actress, “queen of the screen”
Audiences called her the “queen of the screen,” though her career lasted less than five years. Vira Kholodna from Poltava became one of the first great silent-film stars of the Russian Empire and died in Odesa at 25.
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b. 1971
Boxer, WBC heavyweight world champion
In December 2013 the reigning WBC heavyweight world champion gave up his belt of his own accord to go into politics. Vitali Klitschko won 45 of his 47 professional fights, 41 by knockout, and in 2014 became mayor of Kyiv.
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1938–2015
Director of the Illich Steel Works
He joined the Illich steelworks in Mariupol as a pipe fitter and 35 years later was running it. Volodymyr Boiko led the plant for more than two decades, sat in parliament and was made a Hero of Ukraine; its privatization and move into Metinvest were disputed.
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1949–c. 1979
Composer of “Chervona Ruta”
The song “Chervona Ruta” was born from a book of folk kolomyikas and went on to be heard across the USSR. In 1979 its author, the Bukovynian composer Volodymyr Ivasiuk, was found hanged in a forest near Lviv; the circumstances of his death have never been explained.
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c. 958–1015
Baptizer of Rus’
The trident on Ukraine’s coat of arms was the personal sign of a prince who stamped it on his coins over a thousand years ago. Volodymyr the Great united the lands of Rus’, brought Christianity to it (traditionally in 988) and opened Kyiv to writing and stone architecture.
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1863–1945
Author of the noosphere theory
Can life change a whole planet? Volodymyr Vernadskyi was one of the first to see that it can, and he built the theory of the biosphere and the noosphere. A founder of geochemistry, in 1918 he became the first president of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.
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1880–1951
Head of General Secretariat, Directory
His plays were staged by theaters across Europe, and he headed Ukraine’s first government. The writer Volodymyr Vynnychenko was a leader of the Ukrainian Revolution, head of the General Secretariat and of the UPR Directory; his left-wing views are still debated.
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b. 1976
Boxer, 1996 Olympic champion
He sold his Olympic gold medal at a charity auction for a million dollars, and the buyer handed it straight back to his family. Wladimir Klitschko, the 1996 Atlanta champion, went on to reign as world heavyweight champion for nine and a half years.
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c. 978–1054
“Father-in-law of Europe”
Why was a prince of Kyiv nicknamed the “father-in-law of Europe”? Yaroslav the Wise married his daughters to the kings of France, Norway and Hungary, gave Rus’ the law code Rus’ Justice and built Saint Sophia in Kyiv.
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1891–1938
First leader of the OUN
An escapee from a prisoner-of-war camp, within months he was commanding the Sich Riflemen in Kyiv. Yevhen Konovalets, a colonel of the UNR army, later led the underground UVO and in 1929 became the first leader of the OUN.
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1897–c. 1942
Spaceflight theorist
How do you reach the Moon without hauling the whole ship there? Oleksandr Sharhei of Poltava, who lived as Yurii Kondratiuk, worked it out in 1916–1919: leave the craft in orbit and send a small cabin down. Apollo used the idea.
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1980–2022
Poet, founder of Dukh Natsii
Yurii Dadak, an associate professor at a forestry university, studied wood dust; as the poet Yurii Ruf he wrote verse about strong Ukrainians and founded the Dukh Natsii project. On 24 February 2022 he volunteered for the front, and he was killed in Luhansk Oblast on 1 April 2022.
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