Themes by tag: culture
The Go to the Future 2026 charity run will take place on June 7, bringing together participants in Kyiv and online from across Ukraine. The programme includes the Unity Relay featuring veterans with prosthetic limbs and public figures, 2 km and 5 km races, children’s runs of 400 m and 800 m, as well as a 1 km race for participants with dogs.
Among the participants in the Unity Relay is 25-year-old Ivan Artiukh from the Luhansk region, who underwent 15 surgeries and an amputation after sustaining a blast injury. Just three weeks later, he was already looking for ways to return to sports. Today, he has won four gold medals in para swimming at the international veterans competition Air Force and Marine Corps Trials 2026. In June, Ivan will take part in a race on a running prosthetic leg for the first time.
Hlib Kravchenko, known by the callsign “Holden,” is participating in the run for the second time and became the main character of the social video “Taking My Life Back,” a personal story about adapting after limb loss.
Medical Center Orthotics & Prosthetics is the general partner of the third annual Go to the Future charity run. The event is organized by the Future for Ukraine foundation in support of veterans who lost limbs in combat.
Journalists are required to obtain accreditation.
Background: The run is being held with the financial support of Norway and Sweden as part of the “Strong Civil Society of Ukraine” project.
Medical Center Orthotics & Prosthetics is a specialized prosthetics and orthotics center supporting patients from their first prosthesis to a full and active life.
A musical teleconference between Kyoto and Kyiv will take place on May 31 as part of Kyiv Day celebrations. Participants include:
- The Kyoto International Choir, an amateur choir from Kyoto, Japan. Twelve years ago, the choir visited Kyiv to mark the 40th anniversary of sister-city relations between Kyoto and Kyiv. Since then, it has continued cultural exchanges with Ukraine.
- Derevychka, a women’s folk ensemble performing traditional Ukrainian songs from different regions of the country.
- Kyivska Koliada, a community that since 2018 has preserved and practiced traditional Christmas folk celebrations in the context of a modern metropolis.
During the teleconference, Kyivska Koliada and Derevychka will perform Ukrainian folk songs for the Japanese audience, as well as the Japanese song “Miagete Goran Yoru no Hoshi wo” (“Look Up at the Stars in the Night Sky”). The Kyoto choir will perform songs in both Ukrainian and Japanese.
Background: The event is organized in partnership with the Ukrainian-Japanese Center of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the State Polytechnic Museum of KPI.
The 14th International Book Arsenal Festival will take place from May 28 to May 31. This year’s event will bring together more than 150 exhibitors, prominent guests, public intellectuals, established authors and emerging voices. Book Arsenal 2026 will feature 240 events, including discussions, lectures, readings, workshops, meetings with authors and presentations of new publications, as well as music and performance programs, exhibitions, food and other activities.
“Carrying Your Freedom” is the focus theme of this year’s festival. Participants will discuss freedom and its limitations, captivity and occupation as forms of unfreedom, as well as the glorification and fragility of heroes. The focus theme is curated by Ukrainian journalist, human rights advocate, serviceman and former prisoner of war Maksym Butkevych.
This year, the Writers’ Program returns to Book Arsenal under the curation of Ukrainian serviceman, volunteer, poet, novelist and translator Andriy Lyubka. The program invites participants to reflect on Ukraine’s neighbors.
Among other highlights, the artistic program of the 14th Book Arsenal will include 15 exhibition projects.
Journalists can review the full festival program in advance. Accreditation is required.
Background: Book Arsenal is an international event organized by Mystetskyi Arsenal. Held annually since 2011, the festival has become one of Eastern Europe’s leading literary and arts events. In 2019, it received the title of “World’s Best Literary Festival.” The mission of the International Book Arsenal Festival is to foster connections between people, communities and institutions through books, combining aesthetic experience with intellectual engagement.
Book Arsenal is organized in cooperation with the NGO “Mystetskyi Arsenal Community” and supported by the International Renaissance Foundation and the Mnozhyna Foundation.
A large-scale charity festival, ChekaFest 2.0, will take place in Lviv to honor the memory of Hero of Ukraine Iryna Tsybukh, a combat medic who was killed in 2024 while on duty.
The festival will be held on the eve of what would have been Tsybukh’s 28th birthday. She would have turned 28 on June 1 this year.
The event will feature several themed spaces, each reflecting the ideas, values, and vision of Iryna Tsybukh. The music stage will host performances by DakhaBrakha, Pyrih i Batih, ShchukaRyba, Shepit, and Maryna Krut.
The educational program will include lectures and discussions centered on the values Iryna stood for. This year’s focus theme is “The search for and formation of identity.”
An important part of the festival will also be memorial spaces created by the NGO Vshanuy — dedicated areas honoring fallen Ukrainian defenders.
The festival is a charity event, with proceeds going toward the purchase of two unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) for the 503rd Separate Marine Battalion, the unit Iryna worked with during her frontline deployments.
Background: Since 2022, Iryna Tsybukh served as a combat medic with the Hospitallers volunteer medical battalion, saving lives on the front line. She was killed on the Kharkiv front on May 29, 2024. In February 2025, she was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Ukraine.
The National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, with support from the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (Berlin, Germany), is organizing a two-day international conference titled “Museum practices and transformations in the representation of the Second World War.”
The event will bring together scholars and museum professionals representing 43 leading institutions from 15 countries, including internationally renowned organizations such as the Imperial War Museum (London, United Kingdom), the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (Oświęcim, Poland), the Terezín Memorial (Terezín, Czech Republic), Miami University (Oxford, Ohio, United States), the University of Victoria (Canada), and the Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO) in Berlin.
The conference will serve as a platform for professional discussion and exchange between museums, memorial sites, and research institutions from across Europe and beyond. Key topics will include rethinking the legacy of World War II — particularly in post-communist countries — the memorialization of contemporary armed conflicts, and the preservation of historical memory at a time of global instability, when anti-democratic forces increasingly seek to weaponize history for ideological purposes.
Special attention will be devoted to Ukraine’s experience during russia’s full-scale invasion, as the country develops its own culture of remembrance and introduces new approaches to documenting and preserving the history of war in real time.
The working languages of the conference will be Ukrainian and English, with simultaneous interpretation provided.
Journalists may review the full conference program upon registration. Advance registration is required.
On May 26, the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War in Kyiv will host a special screening of the documentary shorts “Voices” and “Her” as part of the VARTA documentary project. The event will combine film screenings, a charity auction, and a live performance by the electronic music project Hidden Element. For the first time in the museum’s history, the performance will take place in the Hall of Victory, a space that until recently had remained closed to such events.
“Voices” is the fifth film in the VARTA documentary series, created amid russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The film is dedicated to the first responders who arrive at the scene after russian strikes — Ukraine’s State Emergency Service rescuers and firefighters.
Journalists are required to register in advance.
Background: “VARTA. A new Ukrainian epic” is a series of documentary shorts about Ukrainian service members and civilians who keep the country running during the war. The project was created by Ukrainian photographer, director, and producer Mariana Shafro together with director, cinematographer, and producer Yevhen Matviienko.
VARTA is now entering a new stage: the documentary shorts have officially become available for use in Ukrainian schools for 11th-grade modern history classes.
A new season of dragon boat training sessions and competitions — Dragon Boat Veterans Kyiv 2026 — will begin in the capital on May 30.
The event will bring together veterans, active-duty military personnel, and people with disabilities through sports, teamwork, and recovery through physical activity. No prior athletic experience is required to participate.
Program highlights include:
— exhibition and training dragon boat races;
— presentation of the 2026 season teams;
— sports and interactive activities for participants and guests;
— children’s and recreation areas;
— live music and informal networking within the veteran community.
Dragon boat racing is an international sport. For veterans and military personnel, it serves not only as physical activity but also as an effective tool for psychological recovery, social reintegration, and returning to active life.
Journalists are required to obtain accreditation. The event will take place in Kyiv. The location will be disclosed to registered participants and media representatives.
Background: The event is organized by the Military Sport municipal enterprise, the Veteran Corps All-Ukrainian Association, and the Mala Flotyliia Children’s Sports and Recreation Club.
A public discussion titled “Accessibility in Cultural Spaces: From Access to Inclusion” will take place at the War Museum on May 26.
The event is being held as part of National Accessibility Week and is part of the nationwide social change campaign “Accessibility Means Possibility,” implemented within First Lady Olena Zelenska’s “Without Barriers” initiative with the support of Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and partner organizations.
Participants will discuss practical approaches to creating accessible cultural environments — from physical accessibility to communication, language, and service solutions that ensure inclusion for visitors.
The program includes the opening of a poster exhibition dedicated to inclusive language, as well as two panel discussions featuring representatives of Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture, the National Philharmonic of Ukraine, the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, the European Business Association, and accessibility ambassadors.
Speakers:
— Anastasiia Bondar, Deputy Minister for Digital Development, Digital Transformation, and Digitalization;
— Lesia Khemraieva, Head of the Department for Accessibility Policy, Gender Equality, and Mental Health at the Ministry of Culture;
— Alona Lebedka, Accessibility Program Manager at the European Business Association;
— Mykhailo Shved, Director General of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine;
— Olena Zemliana, Director General of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine;
— Yurii Ivaskevych, Accessibility Ambassador at the Ministry of Culture.
The discussion will be moderated by Iryna Uzhakova, Head of the Cultural Rehabilitation and Accessibility Unit at the War Museum.
Background: Project partners include UNICEF, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture, the Presidential Commissioner for Accessibility, and the NGO Bezbariernist (“Barrier-Free”).
The project is implemented with support from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the KfW Development Bank and the Government of the United Kingdom.
The National Museum of the History of Ukraine will officially open the large-scale exhibition project “THE PATH OF HEROES. In Memory of Symon Petliura” on May 25, featuring unique artifacts from the era of the Ukrainian People’s Republic.
The exhibition marks the 100th anniversary of the tragic death of Symon Petliura, head of the Directorate of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and Supreme Otaman of the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic.
The exhibition is based on artifacts from the collection of the Military Historical Museum and Archive of the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences (UVAN) in Canada. For decades, the Ukrainian diaspora preserved these items in exile with the intention of transferring them to Ukraine after the restoration of independence.
In accordance with the founders’ “Testament,” the collection was transferred to the National Museum of the History of Ukraine. The return of this heritage has become an event of historical significance, representing not only the repatriation of museum artifacts, but also the restoration of the continuity of Ukrainian historical memory.
The exhibition features more than 200 artifacts illustrating the Ukrainian liberation struggle of the first quarter of the 20th century. Among them are personal belongings of prominent military and political figures of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1921, including:
— the “Corona” typewriter that belonged to Symon Petliura;
— the officer’s bayonet of Volodymyr Salskyi, a lieutenant general of the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic;
— elements of the military uniforms of Yevhen Konovalets and Andrii Melnyk.
Journalists are required to obtain accreditation for the event.
Background: With support from the Pylyp Orlyk Foundation, the exhibition space on the museum’s second floor has been renovated and equipped to host “THE PATH OF HEROES. In Memory of Symon Petliura” as a permanent exhibition.
The Luhansk Regional Museum of Local History, together with the NGO “KLIO HUB,” will present the results of the “Museum in an Emergency Suitcase” project.
“Museum in an Emergency Suitcase” is part of a large international initiative continuing the cooperation launched in 2023 within the exhibition project “Renaître dans la guerre. Louhansk. Un musée déplacé. | Revival in the Times of War. Luhansk. A Displaced Museum. | Revival During the Time of War. Luhansk. A Displaced Museum,” created in partnership between the Luhansk Museum, Geneva Heritage Lab (University of Geneva), and the Department of Contemporary History at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland).
The project continues the international dialogue between Ukraine and Switzerland on preserving cultural heritage during wartime, strengthening cultural diplomacy and partnerships between European institutions.
The final event of the “Museum in an Emergency Suitcase” project will summarize the museum team’s long-term work dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of the Luhansk region, rethinking museum work during wartime, and searching for new ways to engage with memory, local identity, and community. The event will feature exhibition and digital projects created as an attempt to document the experience of loss, displacement, and cultural continuity.
The central part of the event will be the exhibition “Museum in an Emergency Suitcase,” which tells the story of the museum from its founding to the present day. The exhibition highlights the institution’s path through two relocations, the loss of museum premises, evacuation of collections, and the resumption of its work during the full-scale war. Special attention is paid to the museum staff — people who continue preserving the cultural heritage of the Luhansk region despite constant danger, forced displacement, and uncertainty. The exhibition raises the issue of the vulnerability of researchers and cultural workers during war, when along with threats to life comes the risk of losing memory, archives, collections, and entire cultural layers.
Background: Organizers and partners include the Luhansk Regional Museum of Local History; NGO “KLIO HUB”; the State Polytechnic Museum of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute; the Center for Culture and Arts of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute; and the Sloviansk Museum of Local History. The project was created with the support of Switzerland.
