There’s more to being a celebrity than just fame and fortune.
Aside from doing their jobs well, celebrities play an important role in all societies, Ukraine’s included. They inspire and unite people. Heroes, famous athletes, actors, artists and scientists often are the nation’s role models, says Dariya Orlova, who has a Ph.D. in mass communications.
People identify themselves with the celebrities – with athletes, for instance as they represent Ukraine at the international level. “Besides, for many, celebrities are like real-life fictional characters, whose lives are interesting to follow,” Orlova says.
Iryna Bekeshkina, a leading Ukrainian sociologist, cited a famous quote by Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky: “Listen! If stars are lit, it means there is someone who needs it, it means someone wants them to be.”
“If there were no stars,” she told the Kyiv Post, “the sky would remain dark.”
The Kyiv Post has picked out 25 prominent living Ukrainians based on editorial judgment and suggestions by a range of experts. We did not include soldiers fighting at the front, even though all of them have a special place as stars and heroes in society.
In alphabetical order, here are 25 of the most prominent Ukrainians:
Yurii Andrukhovych, 56,
is a Ukrainian writer, poet and translator. He is one of the co-founders of the literary performance group Bu-Ba-Bu, presenting a carnival-like interpretation of events in Ukraine.
Serhiy Bubka, 52,
was a Ukrainian pole-vaulter who won an Olympic gold medal in 1988 and also won several Europe and world championships. He set 35 world records. Bubka was the first pole-vaulter to vault a height of over six meters. Bubka heads the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.
Alexander Glyadyelov, 60,
is a Polish-born photographer who has been living in Ukraine since 1974. He has received several international awards for his work. His photography has been used by Doctors Without Borders, the World Health Organization, Norwegian Refugee Council, UNAIDS and UNICEF.
Bohdan Hawrylyshyn, 89,
is one of the world’s top economists. He is also the president of his own charity fund.
Leonid Kadeniuk, 65,
is Ukraine’s first astronaut. He was a member of international crew on the U.S. space shuttle Columbia in 1997.
Olga Kharlan, 25,
is a Ukrainian sabre fencer. She has been world champion twice, and European champion five times. Kharlan has also won three bronze medals at the Olympic games.
Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko,
40 and 45, are Ukrainian boxing brothers who both became heavyweight world champions. Vitali, who has retired from boxing, is also the mayor of Kyiv.
Yana Klochkova, 34,
a Ukrainian swimmer, won four Olympic gold medals. She set 50 Ukrainian records in various swimming strokes, one world record, and one European one.
Lina Kostenko, 86,
is a Ukrainian poet and writer. During Soviet times, she took part in the dissident movement, known as the Sixtiers. They were an internal social-cultural opposition to the state totalitarian regime.
Olya Kudinenko, 28,
is the founder of the Tabletochki Foundation, which supports children with cancer. In the more than four years since its launch, Tabletochki Foundation has raised more than Hr 58 million ($2.3 million) for child cancer sufferers.
Sergii Leshchenko, 35,
is a member of parliament with the Bloc of President Petro Poroshenko and also a top investigative journalist.
Vasyl Lomachenko, 28,
is a Ukrainian boxer who has twice become an Olympic champion. The prestigious boxing magazine The Ring this year included Lomachenko to its top 10 list of the world’s best boxers. Besides winning gold medals at the Olympics, Lomachenko has twice been world champion, and once European champion. Lomachenko was born in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi in Odesa Oblast. When his parents got him home form the hospital, the first thing his father did was put boxing gloves on Lomachenko’s hands, a boxer’s autobiography on his website says. His father trains him.
Ruslana Lyzhychko, 43,
is a Ukrainian singer better known simply as Ruslana. She was one of the prominent voices of the 2004 Orange Revolution, as well as of the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013-2014. Ruslana won the Eurovision song contest in 2004.
Denis Matvienko, 37,
is a Ukrainian ballet dancer, who now works in the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Nina Matviyenko, 68,
is a Ukrainian folk singer, a former lead singer in famous Veryovka National Academic Choir and now sings with the Kyivska Kamerata folk band.
Ivan Marchuk, 80,
is a Ukrainian artist. A member of the Ukrainian underground movement in 1960s, his work was banned in the Soviet Union. He spent 11 years in voluntarily exile overseas, and returned in the early 2000s.
Mustafa Nayyem, 35,
is a Ukrainian lawmaker with the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko. He is a former investigative journalists whose social media posts helped trigger the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013.
Borys Paton, 97,
is a Ukrainian scientist specialized in welding, metallurgy and technology of materials and materials science. He has served as head of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences since 1962. He is the son of the Kyiv-based bridge construction expert Evgeniy Paton. Borys Paton followed his father’s path into science and technology. After graduating from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Borys Paton started working in the Electric Welding Institute, established by and named after his father. After his father’s death in 1953, Borys Paton was appointed the institute’s head.
Lilia Podkopayeva, 38,
is a former Ukrainian artistic gymnast who won two gold medals — in the all-around and floor exercise competition in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Andriy Shevchenko, 39,
is a Ukrainian football player. He played for the Kyiv football club Dynamo, Italy’s Milan and England’s Chelsea. He won the European Footballer of the Year award in 2004.
Myroslav Skoryk, 78,
is a Ukrainian musician, composer and musicologist. His music made it to the repertoire of Ukrainian and foreign artists. Skoryk is an art director of the National Opera of Ukraine. Born in Lviv in 1938, after 10 years his entire family was exiled to Russian Siberia, where Skoryk studied piano. After returning home in 1955, he chose music as a career. Skoryk has been taught in the Kyiv conservatory, and in the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine. He wrote music for several films, including the famous movie “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors,” directed by Sergii Parajanov. He also created operas, ballets and pop songs. His music combines Carpathian folk melodies and jazz rhythms. Skoryk won the prestigious Shevchenko Prize and holds the title People’s Artist of Ukraine.
Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, 41,
is a Ukrainian film director. His movie “The Tribe” was the first Ukrainian film to be commercially screened in the United States. It also won a prize at the European Film Awards as the European discovery of the year. Born in Kyiv, Slaboshpytskiy graduated from the filmmaking department of the Kyiv State University of Film and Television, majoring in feature film directing. He has worked at various Ukrainian and Russian film studios. He also worked as a scriptwriter for TV films. His short films have been presented at numerous international film festivals, including the Berlin International Film Festival and the Portuguese Algarve festival.
Vladislav Troitskiy, 51,
is a Ukrainian theater actor and director. He established the Dakh Center of Contemporary Arts, and created the DakhaBrakha ethnic band and the Dakh Daughters music project. Troitskiy is also one of the organizers of Gogolfest art festival. Born in the Russian city of Ulan-Ude, Troitskiy moved to Ukraine and graduated from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. While establishing Dakh theater in 1994, Troitskiy was not certain that theater would become his profession, considering it just a hobby. However, it grew into one of the best Ukrainian theaters. Later Troitskiy graduated from the Russian Academy of Dramatic Arts, and has been teaching in Kyiv State University of Film and Television. Ethno-chaos band DakhaBrakha, which was born in the Dakh center, has earned fame across the globe, performing on stages in the United States, Europe, China and Malaysia, as well as making it onto the line-ups of famous music festivals.
Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, frontman of Okean Elzy music group, performs in Kyiv on June 6. (Ukrafoto)
Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, 41,
is a Ukrainian musician, and the leader of rock band Okean Elzy. Vakarchuk is known for his civic activism. He also served as a lawmaker for about a year.
Serhiy Zhadan, 41,
is one of the most popular poets in independent Ukraine. His prose has been translated into dozens of languages. Zhadan is also a prominent civic activist.
