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The Inspiration of Ukrainian Women: 20 Women Who Are Making History

Ukrainian women have risen to be great pioneers in the various industries they are placed in, this is a role that these women have embraced in the recent past. These Ukrainian women have stood on the frontline to achieve significant progress and leave indelible marks in their country and the world at large. It is in the course of their journey that they continue to shatter glass ceilings and inspire many generations after them.

In the past couple of years when the Russian- Ukraine war has been largely televised, we have seen Ukrainian women show great strength and resilience. It is their tenacity and commitment to their goals that have broken all gender stereotypes and cemented their legacy.  This is a true testament that indeed the present and the future is female. In this article, we delve into a list of 20 Ukrainian women who have shaped the course of Ukrainian history and inspired many after them. 

 1. Halyna Vasylchenko

Halyna Vasylchenko is a Ukrainian politician.  From 2017, she was head of the Ukrainian Galician Party’s group of economic experts and helped to develop the party’s economic policy. She is currently serving as a People’s Deputy of Ukraine from Ukraine’s 118th electoral district since 2019. 

2. Kateryna Pavlenko

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Kateryna is a Ukrainian singer, composer, and folklorist. She is the lead vocalist of the Ukrainian electro-folk band Go_A, who represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with their song Solovey. After the cancellation of the contest due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they represented Ukraine again in 2021 with Shum. In 2021, Kateryna Pavlenko entered the top 100 most influential women in Ukraine according to Focus magazine, where she took 10th place.

3. Iryna Vereshchuk

Iryna is a Ukrainian social activist, politician, and former People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the 9th Convocation. After graduating from Military School, Vereshchuk served as an officer in the Ukrainian Army for five years.

In November 2021, Vereshchuk was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories.

4. Mila Kunis

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Mila Kunis is an actress. She was born in Ukraine and raised in Los Angeles. Since 1999, she has voiced Meg Griffin on the Fox animated series Family Guy. Kunis’s breakout film role was in the 2008 romantic comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Kunis gained further critical acclaim and accolades for her performance in the psychological thriller Black Swan, receiving the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

5. Lesya Vasylenko

Lesia Vasylenko is a Ukrainian lawyer and politician serving as a People’s Deputy of Ukraine in the 9th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada. Vasylenko is a member of the Ukrainian permanent delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Bureau of Women Parliamentarians. 

She is the founder of Legal Hundred [uk], a human rights non-governmental organization that provides assistance to servicemen and veterans. Vasylenko became one of the initiators of the international #unrussiaUN campaign aimed at excluding Russia from the UN.

6. Mariana Betsa

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Mariana Betsa is a Ukrainian diplomat. She is a specialist in international law, human rights and the OSCE.  Mariana worked in diplomatic positions in the Contracting-Law Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine since 2001. Since September 2018, Mariana has worked as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Estonia.

7. Oksana Marchenko

Oksana Marchenko was one of Ukrainian literature’s foremost writers, best known for her poems and plays. She was also an active political, civil, and feminist activist.

The poems and plays of Ukrainka are associated with her belief in her country’s freedom and independence. Between 1895 and 1897, she became a member of the Literary and Artistic Society in Kyiv, which was banned in 1905 because of its relations with revolutionary activists. Read more on 15 of the Most Famous Ukrainian People.  

8. Olha Kharlan 

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Olha Kharlan is a Ukrainian right-handed sabre fencer. Kharlan is a two-time team European champion, six-time individual European champion, two-time team world champion, and four-time individual world champion. 

Kharlan competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the 2012 London Olympic Games, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Kharlan was named athlete of the year at the 2009 Ukrainian Heroes of Sports Year awards.

9. Lyudmila Pavlichenko 

Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a Soviet sniper in the Red Army during World War II. She is credited with killing 309 Axis soldiers. She served in the Red Army during the siege of Odessa and the siege of Sevastopol, during the early stages of the fighting on the Eastern Front.

The American folk singer Woody Guthrie composed a song Miss Pavlichenko as a tribute to her war record and to memorialize her visits to the United States and Canada.

10. Tetiana Chornovol

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Tetiana Chornovol is a Ukrainian journalist and civic activist, and one of the leaders in the Euromaidan protest campaign. She is known for investigative reports about corruption in Ukraine, as well as for her direct actions. In 2014, she was elected to the Verkhovna Rada.

In 2015, she became the protagonist of the documentary Breaking Point: The War for Democracy in Ukraine.  The film is about the way Ukrainians behaved during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and Russian military aggression.

11. Yulia Tymoshenko

Yulia Tymoshenko is a Ukrainian politician, people’s Deputy of Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for the fuel and energy complex from 1999 to 2001, and Prime Minister of Ukraine from February to September 2005 and from December 2007 to March 2010. She was the first and so far is the only woman to serve as prime minister of Ukraine. Read more remarquable facts about Yulia Tymoshenko. 

12. Olena Zelenska

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Olena Zelenska is a Ukrainian screenwriter who is the current First Lady of Ukraine and the wife of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenska was named by Time as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2023.

The social activities of the First Lady of Ukraine before the war had three main directions: the health of future generations, equal opportunities and cultural diplomacy. On December 6, 2022, Olena Zelenska received the Hillary Rodham Clinton Awards, presented annually by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security for exceptional leadership in recognizing exceptional leadership in promoting women’s rights and creating a more peaceful and secure world for all.

13. Iryna Farion

Iryna Farion is a Ukrainian linguist and politician. In the 2012 parliamentary election, Farion was elected into parliament after winning a constituency in Lviv Oblast. 

She is a Kandidat of Philological Sciences and a docent of the Department of Ukrainian Language at the Lviv Polytechnic. 

14. Nadiya Savchenko

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Nadiya Savchenko is a Ukrainian politician, former Army aviation pilot in the Ukrainian Ground Forces and former People’s Deputy of Ukraine.

Savchenko was one of Ukraine’s first women to train as a military aeroplane pilot and is the only female aviator to pilot the Sukhoi Su-24 bomber and the Mil Mi-24 helicopter.

15. Natalia Zabolotna

Natalia Zabolotna is the president of the Ukrainian Humanitarian Development Foundation. In November 2016, Zabolotna opened Art Ukraine Gallery art space in Kyiv. During its first year, the gallery exhibited contemporary artists of Ukraine.

On March 20, 2008, Zabolotna was assigned the title, Honored Arts Worker of Ukraine by Presidential decree for her contributions to the cultural development of Ukraine.

16. Kateryna Bondarenko

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Kateryna Bondarenko is a tennis player from Ukraine. She was the doubles champion in 2008 at the Australian Open, partnering with her sister Alona Bondarenko. Her best Grand Slam performance in singles was reaching the quarterfinals at the 2009 US Open.

Over her career, Bondarenko has defeated top ten players Elena Dementieva, Sara Errani, Ana Ivanovic, Garbiñe Muguruza, Li Na, Agnieszka Radwańska, Roberta Vinci, and Venus Williams.

 17. Ruslana Lyzhychko

Ruslana Lyzhychko is a Ukrainian singer, songwriter, dancer, producer, actress, activist, and former politician. She is a World Music Award and Eurovision Song Contest-winning recording artist, holding the title of People’s Artist of Ukraine.

Her niche includes songs performed mainly in Ukrainian and English, but she also recorded cover versions in Spanish and Latin languages.

18. Hanna Hopko

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Hanna Hopko is a Ukrainian civil society leader and politician, a former Member of Parliament and head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada. 

Hopko is an expert in advocacy, on Russian expansionism and hybrid warfare. She was one of the civic leaders of the EuroMaidan during Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity. She belongs to the Young Global Leaders Networks of the World Economic Forum and Munich Security Conference.

19. Solomiya Krushelnytska

Solomiya Krushelnytska was a Ukrainian soprano, considered to be one of the brightest opera stars of the first half of the 20th century.

During her life, Krushelnytska was recognized as the most outstanding singer in the world. In the modern Ukrainian tradition, she is included in the list of most famous women of ancient and modern Ukraine. Read more on top 10 Interesting Facts About Lviv Theatre of Opera. 

20. Olha Saladukha

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Olha Saladukha is a Ukrainian former triple jumper. Saladuha took up athletics at the same club as Sergey Bubka, originally as a sprint hurdler before switching to triple jumping. Saladukha’s personal best jump is 14.99 meters, achieved on 29 June 2012 in Helsinki at the European Championships. 

Olha also has a personal best of 6.37 metres in the long jump. Since the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, she is a member of the Ukrainian parliament.

To conclude, these women have cemented their place in the history of Ukraine. With their significant achievement in their different fields, from politics to humanitarian fields, sports, art and entertainment, the women have made history and also become inspirations to many Ukrainian women.