The 2019 winners of the Kyiv Post’s Top 30 Under 30 awards include artists, athletes, civil society leaders, entrepreneurs, journalists, teachers, two government ministers and one serving military officer. There are 17 women and 13 men, ages 18 to 29.
The winners this year were selected by a mixed jury of their predecessors and Kyiv Post staff. Nominees were proposed by the public in an open call.
The awards ceremony took place at the Unit City innovation park, sponsored this year by Winner, the country’s official importer of Ford, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche and Bentley cars.
Artists
Two female rappers who were the brightest music discoveries of the year for many in Ukraine and abroad received the award this year.
One is Alyona Savranenko, best known by her stage name Alyona Alyona. Having worked at a kindergarten just a year ago, Savranenko, 28, has become one of the most recognized musicians in Ukraine. In Germany, she won the Anchor Award as the best emerging artist of 2019.
A winner who raps as well as she sings is Alina Pash, who mixes hip hop and Ukrainian folk motifs in her music. Pash, 26, received the prize from former investigative journalist and lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko, a Kyiv Post columnist.
Leshchenko emphasized that Pash had several opportunities to move abroad but chose instead to stay in Ukraine and promote her people’s identity.
Pash said that she is honored to have made it to the Top 30 Under 30 list for doing what she loves most — creating brave, unconventional music.
“I want to stay in this country because my roots, my language are here,” Pash said. “I can do it (sing and rap) in English or in Russian, but the best way I do it is in Ukrainian.”
An award winner who is connected to music through his work in directing is Yuriy Dvizhon. Having filmed his first music video right after finishing school, at 26 Dvizhon has made more than 30 videos for local musicians. Through his videos and films, he advocates for LGBTQ rights in Ukraine.
Another winner is Ivan Frolov, a 26-year-old fashion designer who holds several Best Fashion Awards in different categories and participates in every Ukrainian Fashion Week. The U. S. star Gwen Stefani and British pop diva Dua Lipa were spotted wearing clothes by Frolov, whose success comes from his diligence and his passion for his craft.
For Nariman Aliyev, another winner and director, passion lies in the love for his people. This year, Aliyev, 26, debuted with a full-feature film “Homeward,” which follows a Crimean Tatar family in modern Ukraine. The heartbreaking drama has received multiple awards since premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
A winner of Top 30 Under 30 in 2016, Crimean Tatar journalist Sevgil Musayeva presented the prize to Aliyev.
“Unfortunately, Nariman and I are of the third generation of Crimean Tatars who have lost their home. And this movie turned out so profound because it has the pain of three generations of Crimean Tatars,” Musayeva said.
Aliyev says he sends all of his awards to his mother, who lives in Russian-occupied Crimea. She puts them in his room and boasts about her son’s achievements to the neighbors.
“I can’t sleep in my room for now,” Aliyev says. “But I’m sure that, when I come back there, I will still be just a little less than thirty.”
Zhan Beleniuk, lawmaker and the Top 30 Under 30 winner in 2018, presents the 2019 award to Anna Novosad, minister of education and science, during a ceremony on Dec. 10, 2019 in Kyiv. Novosad, 29, is one of the youngest ministers in the Ukrainian government. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Athletes
Those awarded included three athletes who could not attend the ceremony because of training or travel.
The youngest of these was judoka Daria Bilodid. At the age of 16, she won the European Judo Championship, and a month shy of her 18th birthday became the youngest judo world champion. She is now 19 and training for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Among the world’s best young soccer players is Oleksandr Zinchenko, 25. Before an injury in mid-October, he was a starting left wing-back for Manchester City, the defending champions of the English Premier League. As a leading player, Zinchenko also helped the Ukraine national soccer team qualify for the 2020 European Championship.
The only Ukrainian Paralympic athlete competing in club throwing at the international level, Zoya Ovsiy, 25, had a world record in the sport at the World Para Athletics Championship, bringing home a gold medal. Born with no legs and missing a few fingers on her hands, Ovsiy was abandoned as a baby and spent many years in an orphanage in Dnipro. She says that sports mean everything to her.
Soldiers
The presentation of awards to Ukrainian military personnel and veterans include some of the most touching moments of the Top 30 Under 30 award ceremony every year.
This time, the moment came when Oleksiy Martsyniuk, the deputy defense minister, presented awards to Ukrainian military officer Roman Bagayev and war veteran Roman Nabozhniak. Both of them defended Ukraine in Russia’s war, which has killed almost 14,000 people since 2014.
Martsyniuk, who has been in office for nearly two months, said that it would have been impossible to hold such events if soldiers like Bagayev and Nabozhniak haven’t defended our country.
“These are our true heroes,” he said, fighting back tears.
Bagayev, 29, the two-time top tank ace in Ukraine’s army who proved to be an exceptionally talented commander, said he did not feel comfortable being present at such events.
Bagayev said that as a military officer, he would prefer to be “in a forest, close to a tank where it is much safer.”
“I have not achieved anything, I’m just doing my job,” Bagayev said.
Public servants
Every year, the list of winners of the Top 30 Under 30 awards reflect some of the trends in Ukrainian society. At the 2019 awards, this was most noticeable when two young ministers were awarded — representing how Ukraine voted in the youngest government in its history this year.
The serving ministers who received the awards are Mykhailo Fedorov, minister of digital transformation, and Anna Novosad, minister of education and science. Both said they feel the prize is given to them as an advance for the goals they plan to achieve at their jobs.
“These 100 days that we’ve spent in our new roles are just the beginning,” Novosad said during her acceptance speech. “You will be able to calculate (our achievements) later on.”
Novosad, 29, and Fedorov, 28, are some of the youngest ministers in the government.
The winner of the prize in 2018, Greco-Roman wrestling champion Zhan Beleniuk who is now a lawmaker, presented the award to Novosad.
“It’s very pleasant that we have such a young government, energetic people, who, I’m sure, will do everything needed to move our country forward,” Beleniuk said.
Novosad is in charge of Ukraine’s education system, which has over 15,000 schools and 300 universities. She said that her main goal is to create equal opportunities for every child, regardless of their location or background.
“I want our education system to help all those who need it and create opportunities so that everyone has a chance to be successful and happy,” Novosad said.
Civil society
The trend that has always been true for Ukraine is that society’s most significant changes have been driven by civil society activists. Many winners, from artists to entrepreneurs, have been socially active, but two have devoted themselves to social activism systematically.
At only 15, Maksym Studilko co-founded a human rights organization in his hometown of Vinnytsia in 2006 that helps migrants and victims of human trafficking. In 2014, it became one of the first organizations to assist Ukrainians displaced from Crimea and the conflict-torn regions in eastern Ukraine. Studilko, who is now 29, also opened a shelter for women affected by domestic violence.
Another winner, Iryna Shyba, runs a legal think-tank called the DEJURE Foundation, which aims to reform Ukraine’s judiciary by cleaning it of corrupt judges.
While the organization had some success this year, their task is Herculean: on the day of the ceremony, the High Council of Justice ruled not to dismiss Yevhen Ablov, a judge whose 2013 decision allowed for the attempt to disperse protesters using special police during the early days of the EuroMaidan revolution.
“This is one more reason for us to work for the next year to relaunch the High Council of Justice with the participation of international experts,” Shyba said while receiving the award. “And this is going to be our main goal for the next year.”
3 journalists win
Three journalists from Ukraine’s leading investigative media also received the award. The Kyiv Post’s chief editor, Brian Bonner, presented the prizes to Valeriya Egoshyna of Schemes, Lesya Ivanova of Bihus.Info and Kateryna Lykhohliad of Slidstvo.Info.
“For me, and I think for society, journalists are heroes. And if journalists are heroes, then investigative journalists are superheroes. It’s very difficult, and it can be very dangerous work,” Bonner said.
Egorshyna and Ivanova both pointed out that their foreign colleagues are often surprised that Ukraine’s leading investigative journalists are so young.
“To do investigative journalism, you have to spend sleepless nights while writing and filming stories. And you have to have strength, inspiration and energy, unfortunately, to withstand the pressure exerted on journalists in Ukraine,” Egorshyna said.
Educators
Teachers have always been among the winners of the Top 30 Under 30 awards, and this year there are two. A founder of youth center and a cultural manager can also be included on the list of winning educators who have helped to popularize reading in Ukraine.
As a schoolboy, Oleksandr Cherkes hated the ill-treatment by one of his teachers so much that he decided to become a teacher himself to show everyone how it’s done. Now 26, Cherkas was named as one of Ukraine’s 10 best teachers in 2018. He teaches Ukrainian language, literature and computer science, giving his students something he didn’t have — attention and love.
“I will keep changing the education system so that a new generation of change-makers will arise in Ukraine — people who are smart and who think critically,” Cherkas said while receiving the award.
Another educator, Oksana Drahan, teaches music in her hometown Hnizdychiv in Lviv Oblast. For this, Drahan, 29, has built a music school from scratch in an abandoned town council building which now has 13 teachers and 90 students. She heads the school, which local children adore.
While an educator in a broader sense, Sofia Cheliak quit studies in her first university. Her passion was for reading, and it drove her to become the director of program management at the Lviv Book Fair, one of the largest literature festivals in Eastern Europe. Cheliak, 22, has represented Ukraine at book fairs across Europe, but her goal remains to ignite a love of literature among Ukrainians.
Another winner, Pavlo Medyna, founded the youth resource center New Wings in Novovolynsk, Volyn Oblast where young people can gather for social activities or work on ideas for social enterprises. Since then Medyna, 28, created several similar spaces around the region and develops programs for the youth at the Volyn Regional State Administration.
“We are working to show by our own example that if you want to change something — just go ahead and do it. If you start, more people will always join in,” Medyna said at the ceremony.
Dariya Loseva, founder of Myhelix and the Top 30 Under 30 winner in 2018, presents the 2019 award to young inventor and scientist Olga Kharasakhal during a ceremony on Dec. 10, 2019 in Kyiv. Kharasakhal, 18, invented of a new method of detecting melanoma, a skin cancer. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Inventors, entrepreneurs
The three youngest winners of the Top 30 Under 30 awards this year are all 18-year-old inventors. One of them made a medical discovery and is studying to become a doctor and two others are starting businesses based on their inventions. Someday they will become successful entrepreneurs, like this year’s three other winners, who have built successful tech companies in their twenties.
One of the inventors is Valentyn Frechka, who at the age of 16 found a way to produce paper sheets out of fallen leaves. Paper production using his technology is not just better for the environment but is also cheaper. Frechka, now 18, now works with the Zhytomyr Cardboard Factory to develop his idea into a sustainable company that he calls “Re-leaf Paper.”
While Frechka was developing an eco-friendly way to produce paper, Kateryna Mykhalko created an “eternal” notebook at 16 that doesn’t need paper altogether and is resistant to water, tearing and other physical damage. Her startup was an international success, and Mykhalko, now 18, teaches youth in small towns across Ukraine to run their own businesses.
Olga Kharasakhal’s invention is of the kind that experienced scientists develop for years. Kharasakhal, 18, invented a new method of detecting melanoma, a skin cancer, that allows doctors to treat it in the earliest stage. The young inventor wants to contribute more to the fight against cancer and to help Ukraine grow.
“The young generation can really rebuild the country. We have a powerful concentration of potential in people who are not yet 20, who haven’t even graduated from school, but who have the ideas and skills that many older people don’t,” Kharasakhal said at the ceremony.
26-year-old Max Frolov is both a scientist and tech entrepreneur. His company DataRoot Labs is helping develop a virtual artificial intelligence friend for lonely people and a personal coaching platform for amateur athletes. He also created a free university-level program that allows thousands students to get a full education in data science.
While many big Ukrainian tech companies register their business abroad, another winner, Maksym Petruk, runs an IT company that is chiefly Ukrainian and pays Ukrainian taxes while working with an array of international clients. Petruk, 27, splits his time between Ukraine and Silicon Valley and has been named the Innovator of the Year in 2019 by the Payoneer financial services company.
Another Top 30 Under 30 winner who received her award for entrepreneurship in IT is Lidiya Terpel, the founder and CEO of Skyworker. Having started the company right after graduation with two female friends, Terpel, now 27, has taken her teams and tech projects to great places and continues to represent Ukrainian IT at an international level.
“Three of us girls started this business in IT. And I can tell you that nothing prevents women from building a tech business in Ukraine. So give it a try, experiment and I believe that you will succeed,” Terpel said in her acceptance speech.
Helping others
While all of the Top 30 Under 30 winners contribute to the development of Ukraine and the well-being of its people, there are some who focus on helping those who are most in need.
This year’s winner Viktoriya Luchka is working to make movie theaters accessible to people with visual or hearing impairment. Luchka, 27, co-founded the Accessible Cinema initiative, which introduced a phone app that anyone can access audio descriptions and subtitles for films.
Another winner Natalka Sosnytska wants to give a second life to Kostiantynivka, her hometown in Donetsk Oblast that was occupied by Russia-backed forces in 2014. She started by opening Druzi, a creative space in Kostiantynivka, where she holds events aimed at the revival of the city. She says the center is “helping people to break their internal barriers, find opportunities and use them.”
Communications expert Maria Artemenko used to work at a PR agency, but since 2018 has decided to use her skills for charity. She now runs three non-profit projects that popularize the culture of charitable giving in Ukraine: Dobrodiy (Benefactor) Club, Charity Center Ukraine and Giving Tuesday.
In her Top 30 Under 30 acceptance speech, Artemenko encouraged everyone to join charitable initiatives and do good deeds.
“Everyone can change the world,” Artemenko said.
Read more about the 2019 Top 30 Under 30 winners in their profiles and see them on video. Or grab a free magazine dedicated to the winners at our office in Kyiv.
