Editor's Note: This story is part of the "Hidden Canon"  – a special series celebrating Ukrainian classic literature and aiming to bring it to a wider international audience. The series is supported b...

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The moment Svitlana Paveletska, co-founder of Knyholav, received the news that the mass attack on July 19 had wiped out her publishing house's warehouse in Kyiv, she felt an overwhelming wave of grief...

The Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, one of Orthodox Christianity's oldest and most sacred monasteries, was among the targets in Russia's latest overnight attack on June 15. Images of ...

In one of the most devastating attacks on Kyiv since the start of the full-scale war, Russia’s missiles and drones targeted some of the city’s most treasured cultural landmarks. The National Art Muse...

At nearly 90, the Ukrainian painter Ivan Marchuk — widely regarded as one of the country's most important living artists — has found himself fighting in court to maintain the full creative rights to h...

From the early pages of "The Summer My Mother Had Green Eyes," we are swimming in the protagonist Aleksy's grief. The story begins at a point in his late teenage years when he "hated (his mother) more...

From the early pages of "The Summer My Mother Had Green Eyes," we are swimming in the protagonist Aleksy's grief. The story begins at a point in his late teenage years when he "hated (his mother) more...

In an authoritarian society, it’s free thinkers who are targeted by those in power. A book, a social media post, a private conversation — anything can be used against those who refuse to conform in a ...

In Ukraine's cemeteries, some graves are more than symbols of memory. They hold the truth about the country's enduring place in European culture, testifying to centuries of creative achievement and in...

At the initiative of the Ukrainian Institute, the Kyiv Independent announces the launch of "The Hidden Canon: Ukraine's Literary Iconoclasts," a new series celebrating Ukrainian classic literature wit...

Eleven years into Russia’s war, a Ukrainian university is forging ahead with an unexpected academic pursuit: launching a Russian Studies program to study the country that had imposed itself on Ukraine...

Exclusive! From Maternal Tyranny to Collective Spiritual Suicide: Žižek on AI, Europe, and Our Growing Unwillingness to Face Reality

While the Soviet authorities promoted their vision of ideological "universalism" — a homogenized identity that suppressed national cultures — dissenting voices were silenced through arrests, intimidat...

Exclusive! From Maternal Tyranny to Collective Spiritual Suicide: Žižek on AI, Europe, and Our Growing Unwillingness to Face Reality

When the full-scale invasion began, Andriy Lyubka struggled to write. A celebrated Ukrainian writer and translator, he turned instead to fundraising, logistics, and delivering used cars to the front f...

When Russia destroyed Ukraine’s Kakhovka Hydroelectric Dam in June 2023, unleashing catastrophic floods across the country’s south, it seemed like such a blatant act of environmental and humanitarian ...

Overwhelmed by the buzzing nightlife of Khreshchatyk Street in central Kyiv, Stepan Radchenko, the despondent protagonist of Valerian Pidmohylnyi’s novel “The City,” looks up at the moon for solace an...

In the hush of the grass, they coil and keep watch. Before, I would slip through the ...

In the hush of the grass, they coil and keep watch. Before, I would slip through the ...

Editor's Note: The Kyiv Independent is a media partner of the "Gaia-24" performance on Nov. 27 in Kyiv. Even in the midst of Russia’s ecocide against Ukraine — where forests are scorched, rivers are ...

by Milena Findeis In the mouth, the word to taste to chew It hums in the ears is rolled by the eyes cut apart by grimaces Spread with hashtags processed in the news stream until it ends, checked o...

by Milena Findeis In the mouth, the word to taste to chew It hums in the ears is rolled by the eyes cut apart by grimaces Spread with hashtags processed in the news stream until it ends, checked o...

by Ema Dumitriu In fleeing me, my wrath, my fear a female rat is giving birth on the hot sidewalk, steadily, trailing behind a streak of blood with child

It could be a scene from a thriller — watching the FBI arrest your own parents for being Russian spies. But for Alexander and Timothy Vavilov, who had known their parents all their lives as Donald Hea...

Gaza survivor Plestia Alaqad on recognition without justice; Europe’s shifting conflict dynamics; and Trump’s U-turn on Ukraine policy

Amid the shadow of war, the world-renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has brought his first-ever exhibition to Kyiv. Commissioned by the non-profit platform RIBBON International, Ai’s insta...

Amid the shadow of war, the world-renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has brought his first-ever exhibition to Kyiv. Commissioned by the non-profit platform RIBBON International, Ai’s insta...

KHRYSTIA VENGRYNIUK’S Long Eyes is a collection of poems that guides us through the labyrinths of loneliness, where pain drifts like the wind and voices fade yet still echo on the edges of silence. It

Iryna Zarutska and her family fled Ukraine in 2022 to escape the threat of Russia’s full-scale war against her homeland, seeking safety and the promise of a new life in the United States. But that hop...

When a storm in Nevada destroyed a Ukrainian art installation at this year’s Burning Man festival, the Ukrainian team turned a setback into a symbol. Drawing on resilience forged in more than three ye...

A gripping, unexpectedly humorous, and deeply human portrait of life in Ukraine reshaped by war. In this powerful collection of essays, writer Andriy Lyubka&...

Thirty-four years on, Ukraine’s independence endures — even as Russia’s full-scale war puts its people to the ultimate test. That’s why Independence Day, marked on Aug. 24, is more than just a holiday...

Thirty-four years on, Ukraine’s independence endures — even as Russia’s full-scale war puts its people to the ultimate test. That’s why Independence Day, marked on Aug. 24, is more than just a holiday...

To much of the world, Crimea is mostly synonymous with the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine — once a precious Black Sea resort, the peninsula was seized at gunpoint in 2014 and transformed into a...

Kate Tsurkan is a writer, editor, and translator. She founded Apofeie Magazine and co-translated Oleh Sentsov’s Diary of a Hunger Striker (2024) and Myroslav Laiuk’s Bakhmut (2025).

Kate Tsurkan is a writer, editor, and translator. She founded Apofeie Magazine and co-translated Oleh Sentsov’s Diary of a Hunger Striker (2024) and Myroslav Laiuk’s Bakhmut (2025).