New profiles of prominent Ukrainianshttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/enhttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/danylo-halytskyi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/danylo-halytskyi/A prince who, after thirty years of struggle, reunited the Galician-Volhynian state. He defeated a coalition of rivals at Yaroslav (1245), sought Western allies against the Horde, and in 1253 accepted a royal crown from the pope.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/dmytro-vyshnevetskyi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/dmytro-vyshnevetskyi/A prince of the Volhynian Vyshnevetskyi family and starosta of Cherkasy and Kaniv, who rallied the Cossacks against the Tatars and built a castle on the island of Mala Khortytsia. He died in Turkish captivity; a folk song about the Cossack Baida made him immortal.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/iryna-tsybukh/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/iryna-tsybukh/A journalist and manager at Suspilne who went to the front as a paramedic from the age of 17. In the full-scale war she led a Hospitallers battalion crew, evacuating the wounded from the front line. Killed in Kharkiv region on 29 May 2024, two days before turning 26. Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/ivan-kotliarevskyi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/ivan-kotliarevskyi/A native of Poltava and author of the Eneida, the first major work printed in living vernacular Ukrainian (1798). Modern Ukrainian literature is traditionally dated from it, and his plays Natalka Poltavka and Moskal-Charivnyk launched the new Ukrainian theater.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/kniahynia-olha/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/kniahynia-olha/The wife of Prince Ihor, who after his death in 944 ruled Rus’ in place of her young son Sviatoslav. She subdued the Derevlianians, reorganized tribute collection and became the first ruler of Rus’ to accept Christianity.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/mariia-zankovetska/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/mariia-zankovetska/The most celebrated actress of Ukrainian theater of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who for 40 years played in the troupes of Marko Kropyvnytskyi, Mykhailo Starytskyi and Mykola Sadovskyi. She created more than 30 roles, including Natalka in Natalka Poltavka and Kharytyna in The Hired Girl.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/marko-vovchok/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/marko-vovchok/The writer Mariia Vilinska, who wrote under the pen name Marko Vovchok. Her Folk Stories (1857) about the lives of serfs were a landmark in Ukrainian literature, and Taras Shevchenko called her his “daughter.” She translated 15 Jules Verne novels into Russian.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/olena-teliha/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/olena-teliha/A poet and essayist who grew up in a Russian-speaking environment and, in emigration, became one of the voices of Ukrainian nationalism. In 1941, in occupied Kyiv, she headed the Union of Ukrainian Writers. In 1942 she was executed by the Nazis and most likely buried at Babyn Yar.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/petro-kalnyshevskyi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/petro-kalnyshevskyi/The last otaman of the Zaporozhian Sich (1762, 1765–1775): an administrator and diplomat who defended Zaporozhian lands before St. Petersburg. After the Sich was destroyed in 1775, Catherine II exiled him to the Solovetsky Islands, where he spent 25 years in captivity.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/pylyp-orlyk/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/pylyp-orlyk/Mazepa’s general chancellor, elected hetman near Bender in 1710. Chief author of the Pacts and Constitutions, an agreement that limited the hetman’s power. He spent over 30 years in exile, seeking allies in Europe to free Ukraine.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/vira-kholodna/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/vira-kholodna/Born in Poltava, she was one of the first great stars of silent cinema in the Russian Empire and was called the “queen of the screen.” In under five years she appeared in dozens of films, including works by the directors Yevgeny Bauer and Pyotr Chardynin. She died in Odesa in 1919, aged 25.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/yurii-ruf/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/yurii-ruf/A poet and scientist from Lviv (real name Yurii Dadak), founder of the literary and educational project Dukh Natsii (“Spirit of the Nation”) and long-time host of the Kholodnyi Yar festival. On 24 February 2022 he volunteered for the 24th Brigade; he was killed in Luhansk Oblast on 1 April 2022.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/andrei-sheptytskyi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/andrei-sheptytskyi/Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for 43 years, patron of culture and protector of the persecuted. During the Nazi occupation he sheltered Jews and condemned the killings in his pastoral letter “Thou Shalt Not Kill”.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/anna-yaroslavna/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/anna-yaroslavna/A daughter of Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv who became Queen of France in 1051. The mother of King Philip I of France; today she is a symbol of the old ties between Rus’ and Europe.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/bohdan-havrylyshyn/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/bohdan-havrylyshyn/An economist and public figure who was born in the Ternopil region and lived and worked in Canada and Switzerland. For 18 years he headed the International Management Institute in Geneva, and after 1991 he helped build independent Ukraine.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/bohdan-khmelnytskyi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/bohdan-khmelnytskyi/Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host who led the uprising of 1648 and created a Cossack state, the Hetmanate. A gifted commander and diplomat who negotiated with many states of Central and Eastern Europe and with the Ottoman Empire.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/borys-paton/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/borys-paton/A scientist in electric welding and metallurgy who headed the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for 58 years, from 1962 to 2020. Under his leadership electroslag welding was created, and in 1969 the world’s first welding experiments were carried out in space.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/hryhorii-skovoroda/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/hryhorii-skovoroda/One of the most important Ukrainian philosophers of the 18th century, a poet and teacher. He taught that happiness lies in knowing yourself and in “kindred work” - the work you are naturally called to do.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/ihor-sikorskyi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/ihor-sikorskyi/Kyiv-born aircraft designer who built the world’s first multi-engine heavy aircraft and the first mass-produced helicopter. Having lost everything after the revolution, he started over in the United States and changed world aviation.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/ivan-franko/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/ivan-franko/Writer, poet, scholar and journalist, the author of thousands of works. He was one of the first to argue for Ukraine’s political independence.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/ivan-marchuk/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/ivan-marchuk/A painter, graphic artist and sculptor whose work the Soviet authorities refused to recognize because it did not conform to socialist realism. He created his own technique of painting with fine interwoven lines, “plontanism”. A Shevchenko Prize laureate and People’s Artist of Ukraine.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/ivan-mazepa/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/ivan-mazepa/Hetman who ruled the Hetmanate for over 20 years and tried to free Ukraine from Moscow’s control. A generous patron who funded the building and restoration of many churches in the Cossack Baroque style.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/ivan-piddubnyi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/ivan-piddubnyi/A wrestler and strongman from the Cherkasy region who won many international classical wrestling tournaments in the early 20th century. Posters called him the “Champion of Champions,” and he earned a reputation as unbeatable.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/kateryna-bilokur/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/kateryna-bilokur/A self-taught painter from a Ukrainian village and a master of decorative flower painting. With no art training she created her own style, and her work was shown at an international exhibition in Paris.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/kazymyr-malevych/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/kazymyr-malevych/A painter and art theorist born in Kyiv to a family of Polish origin. One of the founders of abstract art, the author of Black Square (1915) and the founder of Suprematism.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/kvitka-tsisyk/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/kvitka-tsisyk/An American singer of Ukrainian descent, born in New York to a family of emigrants from Lviv. Known as a voice of American advertising and film soundtracks, and in Ukraine for her two albums of Ukrainian songs.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/lesya-ukrainka/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/lesya-ukrainka/Poet, playwright and public figure, author of The Forest Song. Despite a serious illness she wrote dramas of world standing and became, for many, a symbol of strength of spirit.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/lina-kostenko/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/lina-kostenko/A poet and one of the earliest of the Sixtiers. Soviet censorship kept her poems out of print for more than ten years, and her historical novel in verse Marusia Churai earned her the Shevchenko Prize.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/mykhailo-hrushevskyi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/mykhailo-hrushevskyi/One of Ukraine’s greatest historians, author of the ten-volume History of Ukraine-Rus’, and head of the Ukrainian Central Rada (council), under which Ukraine declared independence in 1918.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/mykola-amosov/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/mykola-amosov/Heart surgeon, scientist and writer, one of the pioneers of cardiac surgery. He founded an institute in Kyiv where thousands of lives were saved, and developed his own system for staying healthy.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/mykola-hohol/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/mykola-hohol/A writer of Ukrainian origin who wrote in Russian, one of the most influential prose writers of the 19th century. His Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka and Taras Bulba introduced readers worldwide to Ukrainian culture.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/mykola-khvylovyi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/mykola-khvylovyi/Writer and pamphleteer, one of the leaders of the Ukrainian cultural revival of the 1920s. His slogan “Away from Moscow!” called for turning towards Europe, and his fate became a symbol of a generation of artists destroyed by the Soviet regime.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/mykola-leontovych/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/mykola-leontovych/Composer and choir conductor who arranged “Shchedryk”. The world knows the melody as “Carol of the Bells”, and millions of people hear it every year.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/mykola-lysenko/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/mykola-lysenko/Composer, ethnographer and conductor, founder of Ukrainian classical music. Author of the operas Natalka Poltavka and Taras Bulba and of “Prayer for Ukraine”, which became the country’s spiritual anthem.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/oleksandr-arkhypenko/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/oleksandr-arkhypenko/Kyiv-born sculptor and one of the founders of Cubist sculpture. He made the void and the hole part of the form, and this device influenced modern sculpture of the 20th century.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/petro-sahaidachnyi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/petro-sahaidachnyi/Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host who turned the Cossacks into a disciplined army that stopped the Ottoman Empire at Khotyn. He also defended the Orthodox Church and supported education.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/roksolana/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/roksolana/A woman of Ukrainian origin who rose from slavery to become the lawful wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I and the mother of Sultan Selim II. Less is known about her life than the legends tell.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/roman-shukhevych/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/roman-shukhevych/General and commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) from 1943. For almost six years he led the armed underground against Soviet rule, and he was killed in combat. He remains a contested figure.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/serhii-korolov/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/serhii-korolov/Zhytomyr-born rocket and spacecraft designer. Under his leadership the first Earth satellite and the first human were launched into space - even though the Soviet regime had sent him to a labor camp in Kolyma.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/serhii-paradzhanov/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/serhii-paradzhanov/Film director whose Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors revealed the poetry of the Ukrainian Carpathians to the world. After he defended persecuted artists, the authorities imprisoned him on fabricated charges, but his films became classics of world cinema.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/serzh-lyfar/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/serzh-lyfar/A Kyiv-born ballet dancer and choreographer who led the Paris Opera Ballet for more than a quarter of a century. He created more than 200 ballets and became one of the founders of the neoclassical trend in choreography.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/solomiia-krushelnytska/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/solomiia-krushelnytska/A Ukrainian opera singer (soprano) who performed on leading stages in Europe and South America, including La Scala in Milan. In 1904, at Giacomo Puccini’s invitation, she brilliantly sang the role of Butterfly after his opera’s failed premiere.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/stepan-bandera/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/stepan-bandera/Leader of the OUN-B, whose followers proclaimed the Act of Restoration of the Ukrainian State in 1941. For many Ukrainians a symbol of the fight against the Nazi and Soviet regimes; at the same time one of the most contested figures in history.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/taras-shevchenko/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/taras-shevchenko/The national poet of Ukraine, an artist and thinker. His work laid the foundations of modern Ukrainian literature and the literary language, and shaped Ukrainians’ national consciousness.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/valerii-lobanovskyi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/valerii-lobanovskyi/Legendary football coach who made Dynamo Kyiv one of the strongest clubs in Europe. He was one of the first to put football on a scientific footing, with data analysis and systematic training.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/vasyl-stus/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/vasyl-stus/Poet of the Sixtiers generation and human rights defender, a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. He died in a Soviet labor camp, leaving Palimpsests, one of the landmark collections of modern Ukrainian poetry.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/viacheslav-chornovil/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/viacheslav-chornovil/Journalist, dissident and politician who spent more than 13 years in Soviet camps and exile. After his release he became a leader of the independence movement and headed the People’s Movement of Ukraine (Rukh).Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/volodymyr-velykyi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/volodymyr-velykyi/Grand Prince of Kyiv who united the lands of Rus’ and made Christianity the state religion (traditionally dated 988). Under his rule Kyivan Rus’ became one of the largest states in Europe.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/volodymyr-vernadskyi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/volodymyr-vernadskyi/Encyclopaedic scientist, one of the founders of geochemistry and biogeochemistry, and first president of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. His ideas of the biosphere and noosphere influenced modern ecological thinking.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/yaroslav-mudryi/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/yaroslav-mudryi/Grand Prince of Kyiv under whom Kyivan Rus’ reached its peak. He gave the state its first written law code, the Rus’ Justice, built Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv and married his children into Europe’s royal houses.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/yevhen-konovalets/https://namesofukraine.pages.dev/en/people/yevhen-konovalets/Colonel of the army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and commander of the Sich Riflemen. After the defeat of the independence struggle he led the underground Ukrainian Military Organization, and in 1929 became the first leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT