During 30 years of independence, Ukraine has been shaped by flamboyant characters, some of whom are still holding the reins of the country’s destiny today. For Ukraine’s 30th birthday, the Kyiv Post chose 30 of the most prominent figures who shaped the young nation’s turbulent history for good and for ill.
Business:
Ukraine’s richest man: Rinat Akhmetov, 54
Raised in a working-class family near Donetsk, Akhmetov used this industrial region to build his empire and become Ukraine’s wealthiest man. His fortune was valued at $7.6 billion in May 2021.
His holding company, System Capital Management, includes more than 100 businesses in metals, mining, banking, telecommunications, media and real estate.
Akhmetov’s company DTEK is the largest electricity producer in Ukraine, while Metinvest is the biggest producer of coal and steel. Akhmetov owns Ukraine’s most-watched television station, Ukraina, and the most successful football team, Shakhtar Donetsk.
But this success is due to more than his business acumen. Akhmetov has been a major stakeholder in regional and Ukrainian politics for decades.
He backed the Party of Regions and helped bring to power Viktor Yanukovych, whose presidency ended in the bloody EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014.
Akhmetov maintains his influence today. The oligarch reportedly has several dozen lawmakers in his pocket, an allegation he denies.
Hidden oligarch: Dmytro Firtash, 56
Despite the fact that Firtash hasn’t been in Ukraine for over seven years, he dominates the regional gas distribution network, fertilizer production and more. He has been under house arrest in Austria since 2014, fighting to avoid extradition to the U.S. to stand trial on bribery charges, which he denies.
Firtash built his fortune as a middleman. He made billions of dollars from selling Russian gas to Ukraine’s state company Naftogaz during three presidencies – those of Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych, from 1994 to 2014.
Titanium production is the core business of Firtash’s Group DF. The National Security and Defense Council imposed sanctions on the oligarch on July 18, saying his plants supplied titanium to Russia’s defense industry, which Firtash’s lawyers denied.
He has backed Ukrainian parties, including Yanukovych’s Party of Regions and its successor Opposition Bloc.
But Firtash likely influenced the future of Ukraine the most in May 2014, when he met with politicians Petro Poroshenko and Vitali Klitschko in Vienna. At that meeting, it was reportedly decided that Poroshenko would run for president and Klitschko for mayor of Kyiv.
Former banking godfather: Ihor Kolomoisky, 58
With his penchant for swear words and disregard for rules, Kolomoisky is the enfant terrible of Ukraine’s oligarchs.
Through his diverse network of businesses and involvement in politics, Kolomoisky has wielded a big influence on the lives of Ukrainians.
He lost his biggest leverage when his PrivatBank was nationalized in 2016, found to be on the verge of going bankrupt. The investigation alleged that $5.5 billion was stolen from the bank over the years, and Ukraine is suing Kolomoisky and his partner Gennadiy Bogolyubov in six countries.
Kolomoisky also served as the governor of Dnipro Oblast in 2014-2015, helping ensure that the Russia-backed militants who took over parts of eastern Ukraine didn’t move further west.
He helped Volodymyr Zelensky become president: Kolomoisky’s main TV channel 1+1 aired Zelensky’s comedy shows non-stop in the days before the election in 2019.
Kolomoisky is also widely believed to have several dozen lawmakers at his disposal.
Steel baron: Victor Pinchuk, 60
Pinchuk owns steel pipe and railway wheel producer Interpipe, as well as four popular TV channels ó more than any other oligarch.
His fortune and power soared during the presidency of Leonid Kuchma, whose daughter Pinchuk married in 2002.
He still maintains close personal and business ties with the ex-president. When Zelensky recruited Kuchma to represent Ukraine at negotiations with Russia in 2019, Pinchuk was part of the negotiation with his father-in-law.
Pinchuk caused national controversy in 2016 when he penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed which raised the possibility of Ukraine effectively giving Crimea to Russia in exchange for peace in eastern Ukraine.
Central bank creator: Vadym Hetman, 1935–1998
Hetman is credited with the creation of the National Bank of Ukraine.
When he joined the bank in 1992, he modernized it and set up the interbank database which is still considered one of the best in Eastern Europe. He was assassinated in Kyiv in 1998.
Politics:
Ukrainian dissident: Viacheslav Chornovil, 1937–1999
Chornovil was a Ukrainian politician and prominent Soviet dissident. He was arrested multiple times in the 1960s and 1970s for his pro-Ukrainian views.
As a longtime advocate of Ukrainian independence, he led the opposition People’s Movement of Ukraine, also known as Rukh, which was a key party in Ukraine’s fight for independence from the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Chornovil ran in Ukraine’s first independent presidential election, eventually losing to Soviet Ukraine Head Leonid Kravchuk. Yet, Chornovil’s pro-Ukrainian drive helped shape the early years of the country’s independence with pro-European, Ukraine-centric views becoming unwavering.
First president: Leonid Kravchuk, 87
Prior to becoming Ukraine’s first president, Kravchuk was a high-level Communist official.
On Aug. 24, 1991, Kravchuk officially signed into force Ukraine’s Declaration of Independence.
Kravchuk oversaw Ukraine’s transition to democracy. After winning the 1991 presidential elections, Kravchuk signed the Belovezh Accords effectively ending the Soviet Union.
His short tenure was marked by the preservation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, yet vast economic failure caused him to lose his re-election bid in 1994.
Kravchuk scheduled snap parliamentary and presidential elections in 1994, lost and oversaw the first peaceful transition of power in Ukraine’s modern history.
Oligopoly architect: Leonid Kuchma, 83
The only Ukrainian president to win a second term, Kuchma is remembered for his rampant corruption and the creation of oligarch monopolies.
Kuchma’s son-in-law, Pinchuk, turned into one of Ukraine’s wealthiest oligarchs, while other prominent businessmen were also able to accumulate enormous wealth.
Recordings made by Kuchma’s security guard Mykola Melnychenko in 2000 implicated Kuchma in ordering the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze as well as sanctioning illegal arms sales to Iraq. Kuchma denied all accusations, yet saw a decline in his international standing.
As a result, Kuchma turned to Russia and picked pro-Kremlin politician Yanukovych as his successor.
After leaving office, Kuchma stayed out of frontline politics but returned in 2014 as a mediator between Ukraine and Russian-backed militants in Donbas, achieving little.
Poisoned president: Viktor Yushchenko, 67
Yushchenko was Ukraine’s first pro-Western president. He is also among the least popular.
Before taking office, Yushchenko, then head of the National Bank, oversaw the implementation of hryvnia as the country’s national currency in 1996. He later served as Ukraine’s prime minister building a vast following.
Yushchenko became seriously ill from dioxin poisoning in an apparent assassination attempt during his 2004 presidential campaign.
He lost the sham elections to Kuchma’s protégé Viktor Yanukovych. However, mass protests, which became known as the Orange Revolution, forced the Constitutional Court to schedule new elections, which were won by Yushchenko.
Yet despite vast support, Yushchenko’s presidency was marked by constant infighting with ally turned foe Yulia Tymoshenko, lack of promised reforms and eventually paved the way to Yanukovych’s comeback in 2010.
Gas princess: Yulia Tymoshenko, 60
Tymoshenko has been active in Ukrainian politics for more than 20 years. Tymoshenko rose to power after the Orange Revolution where she played an active role as Yushchenko’s closest ally.
Tymoshenko has served as Ukraineís prime minister in 2005 and 2007-2010. With her braided hair, she became the global face of Ukraine’s pro-Western movement in the 2000s.
However, her role in Ukraine’s history is marked by controversy.
She became known as the ‘gas princess’ because of her alleged lucrative dealings at the head of a major energy company in the 1990s. She was arrested, but later released without charges pressed.
After Yanukovych came to power, Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison on abuse of power charges. The case was later recognized as politically motivated by Ukraine and the European Union.
Nearly 25 years after being first elected to parliament, Tymoshenko still leads a 24-member faction and is now actively stalling pro-Western reforms.
Fugitive president: Viktor Yanukovych, 71
Yanukovych served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 until being ousted by the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014.
Yanukovych is best known for leading a pro-Kremlin kleptocratic regime and for being a politician on the wrong side of two revolutions.
In 2004, then Kuchma’s protégé, Yanukovych falsified elections only to see hundreds of thousands of people in downtown Kyiv protesting against his accession.
After ending up on the losing side of the Orange Revolution, the incompetent rule of his main opponent, Yushchenko, allowed the pro-Kremlin politician to win the 2010 presidential elections.
In 2013, Yanukovych’s turn towards Russia sparked a new protest known as the EuroMaidan Revolution. After the revolution turned deadly, Yanukovych escaped to Russia.
Yanukovych was sentenced to 13.5 years in absentia for high treason. Yanukovych’s escape in February 2014 was followed by a Russian military invasion which continues to this day. Russia currently occupies Crimea and eastern Donbas, killing over 13,000 people in the process.
Putin’s henchman: Viktor Medvedchuk, 67
Ukrainian politician and media tycoon Medvedchuk is widely considered to have been the lead Kremlin agent in Ukraine for over two decades. Russian President Vladimir Putin is the godfather of Medvedchuk’s daughter.
Medvedchuk first emerged on Ukraineís political scene as head of Kuchmaís presidential administration, shaping his turn towards Russia.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, Medvedchuk became an intermediary between Ukraine and Russia, allegedly serving Russian interests.
During Russia’s war, Medvedchuk successfully consolidated pro-Russian forces and supported several TV channels spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda. In May, Medvedchuk was charged with treason in Ukraine.
Chocolate king: Petro Poroshenko, 55
Coming to power after the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014, confectionery tycoon Poroshenko found hopes of swift reforms placed on his shoulders.
An experienced politician and minister under Yanukovych, Poroshenko faced a difficult task. His presidency began months after Russia’s invasion of Crimea and the active phase of Russian military intervention in Donbas.
Poroshenko oversaw the rebuilding of a decrepit Ukrainian army and negotiated a ceasefire, known as the Minsk Agreement, in September 2014.
However, the ceasefire followed Ukraine’s largest military defeat in Ilovaisk, while his presidency was marked by corruption and abuse of power which led to his defeat in the 2019 presidential elections.
Sitcom president: Volodymyr Zelensky, 43
A well-known comedian since the early 2000s, Zelensky became Ukraineís president in 2019, crushing heavyweight politician Poroshenko.
Zelensky, a household name in show business, started gaining political fame in 2015 thanks to his ‘Servant of the People’ TV series where he played a naive and disgruntled school teacher who accidentally becomes president.
Zelensky rode the anti-establishment card into office. His Servant of the People party won the 2019 snap parliamentary elections in a landslide gaining a single-party majority.
Zelensky’s supporters called this an ‘electoral revolution.’ To this day, Zelensky, who ran on a platform of defeating corruption and ending the war, remains the most popular politician in Ukraine.
Health reformer: Ulana Suprun, 58
A Ukrainian-American radiologist from Detroit, Suprun and her husband Marko founded the Patriot Defense NGO in late 2013.
Starting out during the EuroMaidan Revolution, the organization went on to provide invaluable first aid training and supply thousands of medical kits to Ukrainian troops in Donbas.
Suprun was made acting health minister in June 2016 and pushed through key healthcare reforms, changing how Ukraine procured drugs and medical supplies. She was replaced in August 2019. Under Zelensky, some of Suprun’s medical reforms were rolled back.
Controversial minister: Arsen Avakov, 57
Ex-Interior Minister Avavkov was Ukraine’s longest-serving minister. Appointed in February 2014, days after Yanukovychís ousting, Avakov resigned on July 12, 2021.
In the early stages of his reign, Avakov oversaw the creation of the National Guard, supported volunteer battalions holding off Russian invasion in Donbas and launched the reform of the Soviet-style police force.
Avakov also built a formidable power base that gave him a reputation as an untouchable gray eminence.
Deeply unpopular, Avakov failed to enact meaningful reforms, protected corrupt officials, and stalled crucial investigations. Under his watch, many journalists were killed, with police investigations leading nowhere.
Sport:
Football legend: Andriy Shevchenko, 44
Unquestionably the best footballer to play for the country after independence, Shevchenko shaped the lives of many young Ukrainian sports fans.
In 1999, Shevchenko, coached by Valery Lobanovsky, led Dynamo Kyiv to the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League tournament. In 2006, Shevchenko, coached by football legend Oleh Blokhin, led Ukraine’s national football team to the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup.
In 2004, Shevchenko was crowned as the best football player in the world, receiving the Ballon D’Or award.
As a coach, Shevchenko repeated his national team success, leading Ukraine to the quarterfinals of the UEFA European Championship in July 2021.
Tennis superstar: Elina Svitolina, 26
Olympic bronze medalist Svitolina is the highest-ranked tennis player of either gender in Ukraine’s history: She was third in the world in 2017 and is currently ranked fifth.
She is well-known for her ability to produce a giant-killing performance, having previously defeated both Serena and Venus Williams, Ana Ivanović and Naomi Osaka.
Champion brothers: Wladimir Klitschko, 45 and Vitali Klitschko, 50
The Klitschko brothers were so dominant in heavyweight boxing that the decade between 2005 and 2015 is still referred to as the “Klitschko era.”
Both brothers hold PhDs in sport science, leading them to be nicknamed “Dr. Ironfist” and “Dr. Steelhammer” during their in-ring careers. Wladimir still holds the record for longest cumulative heavyweight title reign, while Vitali is now into his third term as mayor of Kyiv, facing accusations of endemic corruption in his close circle.
Record breaker: Serhiy Bubka, 57
Bubka was known for continuously breaking the pole vault world record: he did so 35 times in his career.
He won Olympic gold in 1988 and six World Championship gold medals: three for the Soviet Union and three for independent Ukraine. Since 2005, he has served as the President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.
Journalists/ Activists:
Martyred journalist: Georgiy Gongadze, 1969–2000
Gongadze was born in Tbilisi to a Georgian father and a Ukrainian mother.
In 2000, he founded Ukrainska Pravda, an online publication that was one of the few to stand up to Leonid Kuchma’s attempts to control the press.
This made him the top target for the Interior Ministry, four of whose agents kidnapped Gongadze in central Kyiv and murdered him in a forest outside the capital on Sep. 16, 2000.
Audiotapes released in Nov. 2000 and later authenticated by the FBI showed Kuchma discussing “stopping” Gongadze.
Murdered activist: Kateryna Gandziuk, 1985–2018
A fearless activist and city council official in her hometown of Kherson, Gandziuk had sulfuric acid thrown on her by a hired assailant on July 31, 2018.
She suffered severe burns to her face and body and died just over a month later, on Nov. 3.
The attack shocked Ukraine, leading many civil society groups to fly banners asking who killed Gandziuk.
It took until July 2020 for the police to arrest the then-head of Kherson’s regional administration, Vladyslav Manger, who is widely believed to have ordered the killing.
Brazenly murdered: Pavel Sheremet, 1971–2016
Journalist Sheremet left his native Belarus for Moscow after facing beatings and imprisonment. He then moved from Russia to Kyiv in 2014 in protest of his state-run employer’s pro-Crimea annexation editorial stance.
On July 20, 2016, he was killed by a car bomb in central Kyiv, leaving the nation in shock.
Three suspects were charged in 2019, but the case has been falling apart. It became a symbol of impunity for crimes against journalists, and the impotence of the police.
Dying for freedom: Heavenly Hundred
The Heavenly Hundred is the name that was given to activists who were killed in Kyiv during clashes with Yanukovych’s security forces during the EuroMaidan Revolution in central Kyiv.
The protests began in November 2013 when activists gathered at Independence Square to protest Yanukovychís decision not to sign an association agreement with the European Union and, instead, seek closer economic ties with Russia.
More than 100 people were killed as a result of violent crackdowns by authorities that escalated in February 2014.
Imprisoned filmmaker: Oleg Sentsov, 45
Ukrainian film director, scriptwriter, author and activist, Sentsov was detained in Crimea in May 2014 and sentenced to 20 years in a Russian prison on trumped-up charges of terrorism in 2015.
In May 2018, Sentsov declared an indefinite hunger strike to help free Ukrainian political prisoners detained by Russia. After 145 days of hunger strike, Sentsov was forced to end it, under the threat of being force-fed by authorities.
Sentsov was freed from a Russian penal colony in September 2019 after more than five years of detention, as part of a historic prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine.
Music/artists
Eurovision winner: Ruslana, 48
Ruslana Lyzhychko became Ukraine’s biggest musical export after storming to victory in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest.
She also supported civic activists during the Orange Revolution in 2004 and was a leading figure in the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014.
Flamboyant icon: Verka Serduchka, 47
Verka Serduchka is the drag persona of Ukrainian artist Andriy Danilko and an icon across the post-Soviet world. Verka Serduchka is a flamboyant middle-aged woman from a rural family clattered in glitter with bright lipstick, fake breasts and shiny crystal-encrusted headpiece.
The singer represented Ukraine at the 2007 Eurovision and finished second, becoming one of the all-time favorite acts among the contestís fans in Ukraine and across Europe.
With his music playing at nearly every wedding in Ukraine, Verka Serduchka is a household name and a national symbol.
Rockstar lawmaker: Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, 46
Ukrainian rock star and lawmaker Vakarchuk founded the Holos (Voice) party in 2019, but he’s more famous for being the lead singer of the popular Okean Elzy rock group founded in 1994.
Vakarchuk’s songs became anthems for both the Orange Revolution and the EuroMaidan Revolution. Okean Elzy is the only Ukrainian band that sells out stadiums.
Rock’n’roll novelist: Serhiy Zhadan, 46
Zhadan is a poet, rock band front man and political activist. Considering himself a “peaceful activist,” he took part in the EuroMaidan movement in Kharkiv.
His writing includes explorations of the brutal conflict between Russian-backed militants and the Ukrainian army, as well as his native eastern Ukraine.
Zhadan’s literary works have received numerous national and international awards and have been translated into many languages, making him one of the most renowned Ukrainian writers.
People’s poet: Andriy Kuzmenko, 1968–2015
Singer, poet, writer, TV presenter, producer and actor, Kuzmenko, known as Kuzma Skryabin, was best known as the lead singer of the popular Ukrainian rock band Skryabin, inspired by Depeche Mode and The Cure, founded in 1989.
He was killed in a car crash in February 2015. His songs surged in popularity after his death.
