Christmas Joy to Ukraine

On the morning of October 10, editor Yury Marchenko was supposed to be running through Shevchenko Park, near his home, at the same time as the Russian rockets hit it. One of them — to the playground, the other — to the intersection of Shevchenko Boulevard and Volodymyrska Street. The blast wave damaged "strategic" objects: museums, educational institutions, restaurants, galleries, hospitals, the Ministry of Education, the Teacher's House and the protective structure around the monument to Mykhailo Hrushevskyi. We are looking for an answer not only with Yuriy Marchenko, but also with volunteer Serhii Prytula, architect Slava Balbek, historian Oleksandr Palii, military expert Serhii Kuzan, deputy director of the National Science and Natural History Museum of the National Academy of Sciences Oksana Chervonenko and director of the Khanenko Museum Yulia Vaganova.

Makariv is a small village near Kyiv. In February and March, there were battles here as the Russian army was on its way to Kyiv. Many buildings were damaged by shelling, including the local fire station. Volunteers from the organisation Building Ukraine Together set up a camp to help the firefighters restore the building. They woke up, did exercises, had breakfast and repairs, and in the evening shared their experiences and their own stories. Artem's friend was killed in Tokmak in the first days of the war, Ira witnessed the death of her family in Irpin, Dasha's father is in the Ukrainian army, Yura left the camp early because he went to the funeral of his friend who died at the front. These stories are much deeper than they seem. Find out more about youth and war, about repairing without experience and a summer camp in a bombed-out village in the documentary story by Suspilne Culture.

They can sense survivors under rubble three metres deep, warn our soldiers of an approaching enemy and show sappers where to look for a mine. And they are also cute. Service dogs and dog handlers saved us even before Russia's full-scale invasion, but after 24 February, the threats and challenges increased. The film is about how dogs and military, rescue and rescue dog handlers cooperate and coexist, how they meet each other, build trust and mutual love, learn responsibility and save lives at the risk of their own.

Gathering together dozens of his musicians, providing them with housing and work in Lviv, organising the evacuation of instruments from under fire, and continuing to perform: this is the second time that the director of the Luhansk Philharmonic, Ihor Shapovalov, has revived the orchestra. Back in 2015, after being rescued from Luhansk, Sievierodonetsk became his home. In seven years, Igor has managed not only to staff the orchestra, but also to establish links with orchestras from Europe and different parts of Ukraine, and to show that Luhansk region has always been, is and will be Ukrainian. Today, the battle for Sievierodonetsk is ongoing, and Russia's large-scale invasion is putting the musicians in front of new challenges. But they remember why it is worth taking to the stage again and again, to spread Ukrainian and European culture.

To travel all over Ukraine, collect 25 casts of Ukrainian girls' bodies and make a sculpture out of them for Independence Day. Ceramist Slavik Pasynok spent the summer creating his project ‘The One’. To do this, he made a cast of a certain part of a girl's body in each region. He formed a sculpture from the casts, and the UA: Culture team filmed the process. Is it possible to assemble something unified from different parts?

The artists Zhanna Kadyrova and Denys Ruban spent two weeks in the basement of their house, fleeing from the rocket attacks and sabotage groups of the occupiers that were flooding the outskirts of Kyiv at the time, and then decided to evacuate to western Ukraine. Local residents of one of the Zakarpattia villages sheltered them in a picturesque house on a hillside, next to a river. Doing what you know and love for the benefit of Ukraine is the best thing an artist can do in times of war. This is how the Palianytsia project was born - a series of objects made of stones cut by a mountain river. Zhanna sells them to patrons and galleries and uses the proceeds to buy bulletproof vests, radios, thermal imagers and other things our soldiers need. Before she sends her ‘loaves’ to Venice for the Biennale, Zhanna holds an exhibition in the village where she now lives, so that the people who have taken her in can be the first to see her art.

A year ago, on 29 December 2019, prisoners were exchanged with the self-proclaimed ‘LPR’ and ‘DPR’. Among the Ukrainians who returned home were journalist Stanislav Aseyev, tanker Bohdan Pantiushenko, and human rights activist Andriy Yarovoi. Four months earlier, on 7 September, Crimeans Oleg Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko were released from Russian colonies. We spoke to the former prisoners about their first year of freedom.

In 2022, Mantas Kvedaravičius went back to Ukraine, Mariupol, at the heart of the war, to be with the people he had met and filmed in 2015. Following his death, his producers and collaborators have put all their strength into continuing transmitting his work, his vision and his films. Also a PhD in anthropology, Mantas Kvedaravičius wished to testify as a filmmaker as far as possible from the agitation of the media and the politicians. With huge force and sensitivity, Mariupolis 2 depicts life as it continues amidst the bombing and reveals images that convey both tragedy and hope.

The film is about how the occupation has changed and sometimes broken the lives of people living on the peninsula. Hromadske journalist Natalia Humeniuk arrived in Crimea on the day of the so-called ‘referendum’ on 16 March 2014, where she talked to people in Bakhchisarai, Simferopol, Yalta and Sevastopol. Since then, the journalist has returned to the peninsula at least once a year: she talked about the first political prisoners, the beginning of repressions against Crimean Tatars, the economic conditions and everyday life of the residents of the occupied Crimea, and what it was like to be a Ukrainian in the occupied Crimea or even an activist of the ‘Crimea is ours’ movement who began to criticise the occupation administration. After 5 years, Hromadske journalists returned to the people whose stories were told in the first months of the annexation.

By invading this "state fiction" that is, according to him, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin takes up the motto of the tsars: "sovereign of all Russia, the great, the small and the white". The first would have Moscow as its capital, the second, kyiv, and the last, Minsk.

Deep in a forest by the Baltic Sea, a group of Ukrainian families come together to start the healing process with the help of golden retrievers and palamino horses at an animal therapy retreat. In the safety of the forest, the children’s memories of being illegally deported to Russia and their families’ struggles to rescue them are unraveled with the help of skilled and sensitive counsellors. The joy and humour the children discover during their time in the forest make it easy to forget that their stories are the reason the International Criminal Court recently issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. Nearly 20,000 abducted children remain in Russian institutions.

A chronicle of the civil uprising against the regime of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych that took place in Kyiv in the winter of 2013/14. The film follows the progress of the revolution: from peaceful rallies, half a million strong in the Maidan square, to the bloody street battles between protesters and riot police.

Five young Ukrainians discuss life following the Maidan Revolution of 2014. Not all fought in the Russian-Ukrainian war, but it, regardless, shattered their life plans. Representing 'Generation Maidan', they face the question of how to cope with experiences of violence, how to go on. A local theatre director produces Hamlet, wherein they can use Shakespeare’s tragic character as a mirror and face their traumas onstage. For them, 'to be or not to be' is not simply text but an existential dilemma with no clear answer.

A profile of Putin, exploring his complicated relationship with Ukraine. Why does this neighbouring nation threaten his power and identity?

Personal stories from civilians, children, soldiers, doctors, the country’s elderly, journalists, religious leaders, and international volunteers - a handful of the millions of people whose lives have been turned upside-down by nine years (and counting) of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

An eye-opening documentary capturing Ukrainian soldiers in trenches and civilians facing ongoing destruction by invading Russian military forces.

A look inside the Russian assault on Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, told by displaced families, civilians caught in the fight and first responders.

On February 24th, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The war has since killed thousands, displaced millions and destroyed entire cities. Despite international appeals for Volodymyr Zelensky, and his family, to be evacuated to a safe location during the opening days of the invasion, the 44-year-old president stayed in Kyiv with his defence forces. It's hard to imagine how this bright, comedic, family man, has ended up in one of the most dangerous positions in the world, with a giant target on his back. 10 months on, and still fighting from the ground, Zelensky has been named TIME Person of the Year 2022. With comparisons to Winston Churchill, as a war time leader, his impact is undeniable. Utilising his acting skills he is embodying everything it means to have the spirit of Ukraine.

The story of war, love and death that was documented by the immediate participants of events. Off screen and later on it are the two - a boy and a girl. He volunteered for the front; she went to the place just after the battle. He got into Ilovaysk cauldron, lost his closest brother-soldiers. She, while travelling along the ruined towns, strives to understand the essence of war and love. Both tell openly one another about their feelings during the war, escaping the cauldron, a try to live together after, and a common trip to the frontline.

Film reconstruction of five real stories about the heroic deeds of the residents of Kyiv region during the Russian occupation. A story about those who heroically and selflessly saved tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives.