The President Presented the Annual “National Legend of Ukraine” Award to Servicemembers, Athletes, Artists, and Philanthropists

20 August 2025 – 21:37

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented the “National Legend of Ukraine” award to this year’s laureates. First Lady Olena Zelenska also took part in the ceremony.

The Head of State emphasized that the award carries great significance and purpose – as a rightful tribute to Ukraine’s talents, geniuses, and heroes.

“I want to thank you for making Ukraine known, for defending our state with your voices. We must constantly keep the focus on our state so that support does not diminish – both political support and, above all, support for our warriors. We are grateful to them for defending Ukraine and for defending all the talent you have brought to our country,” said the President.

This year, Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented ten “National Legend of Ukraine” awards to servicemembers, athletes, artists, and philanthropists. The awardees are:

Musician, vocalist, composer, and leader of the rock band Okean Elzy, Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, who also serves as a United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador for Youth in Ukraine. Since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, he has actively supported Ukrainian warriors, giving more than 150 concerts on the front line and at military units, as well as organizing numerous fundraisers to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine and civilians.

First Vice President of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Hero of Ukraine, Volodymyr Horbulin. He has devoted over 60 years of his life to strengthening the state. One of the authors of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Concept, the first National Space Program, and the Strategy for the Construction and Development of the Armed Forces. He is regarded as the father of Ukraine’s rocket and space industry in the years of Ukraine’s independence.

Employees of the Security Service of Ukraine, who developed and carried out the unique military operation “Spiderweb.” As a result of this operation, four Russian airfields were attacked and 41 aircraft – one-third of the enemy’s strategic aviation – were destroyed. For security reasons, the names and faces of the awardees remain undisclosed. The special operation was led by the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Vasyl Maliuk

Ballet artist, choreographer, and dance theorist, Serge Lifar (posthumously). His contemporaries called him “the god of dance.” In 1922, Serge Lifar emigrated from Kyiv to Paris, rising quickly from corps de ballet dancer to soloist, and in 1929, he became head of the ballet troupe at the Paris Opera. This year, Ukraine marks the 120th anniversary of his birth.

Olympic champion, multiple world and European champion in athletics, Yaroslava Mahuchikh. Last year, she won Olympic gold and was named the world’s best female athlete. She was a bronze medalist at the 2020 Olympics and is a three-time Diamond League winner. She is currently competing in another Diamond League stage in Lausanne. Yaroslava Mahuchikh will receive her award once she returns home from the competition.

Opera singer, soloist of the Taras Shevchenko National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ukraine, Liudmyla Monastyrska. She is considered the “leading Aida” of the modern world opera stage, as she is performing this role at La Scala, Covent Garden, and the Metropolitan Opera. Liudmyla Monastyrska has received numerous international awards and is listed among the world’s top opera singers.

Artist, master of non-figurative painting and landscape, laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine, Anatoly Kryvolap. He is the author of a unique approach to color in painting. The artist twice set world records for sales of contemporary Ukrainian art on the international art market.

Commander of a medical company, captain of the medical service, Andrii Semianiv (MED GOblin). For over two years, he has overseen stabilization points in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions. His unit combines advanced approaches to the evacuation of the wounded with the provision of qualified medical aid to warriors directly on the front line. Andrii Semianiv has provided assistance to nearly 6,000 wounded warriors.

Entrepreneur, philanthropist, and public figure, Canadian citizen of Ukrainian origin, James Temerty. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, he has funded a program for students and teachers from Ukraine in Toronto, supported the Olena Zelenska Foundation in helping residents of de-occupied territories, and donated one million dollars for generators for Ukrainian hospitals.

Singer, People’s Artist of Ukraine, Hero of Ukraine, Vasyl Zinkevych. His songs are part of the golden collection of 20th-century Ukrainian music. It was with the trio Smerichka – featuring Vasyl Zinkevych, Nazariy Yaremchuk, and Volodymyr Ivasiuk – that the legendary “Chervona Ruta” was first performed. This year, Vasyl Zinkevych celebrated his 80th birthday.

The “National Legend of Ukraine” award was established in 2021. Since then, the President has annually honored people who have contributed to building an independent Ukraine, defending our state, and advancing the national economy, science, education, culture, arts, sports, health care, as well as active charitable and public work.

A full television broadcast of this year’s awards ceremony will air on the national United News telethon on Ukraine’s Independence Day, August 24, at 9:00 p.m.

Georgia:

For the 266th day in a row, Rustaveli Avenue is blocked in Tbilisi. Protests continue in 8+ cities across Georgia. 🇬🇪

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— Rusudan Djakeli (@rusudandjakeli.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 1:25 PM

Classic Russian: gets punched, takes the bluff back, sulks.

The Georgian Dream has always threatened with leaving CoE whenever they got criticism from CoE or PACE.

Now that it’s been voiced for the first time that Georgia could be expelled from CoE, he misrepresents and downgrades the situation.

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 9:07 AM

1/ Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze responded to a statement by 51 PACE members by saying that “European bureaucracy is absurd.”

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 5:37 AM

3/ “They are demanding the suspension of a status that we have already suspended ourselves. It is completely absurd; unfortunately, European bureaucracy is absurd, and the European politicians involved are in absurdity”.

— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 5:37 AM

The other day I saw that Belarus jailed a retired lady in her 70s and thought to myself that at least the regime in Georgia didn’t jail the elderly yet.

Well, I was wrong…

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 7:23 AM

Lithuania:

Earlier this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov wrote the foreword for a monograph questioning the existence of the Lithuanian language & Lithuania’s very statehood. Now, a journal that Lavrov oversees has an article warning that the Baltic Sea could become a “military operations theater.”

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— Kevin Rothrock (@kevinrothrock.me) August 20, 2025 at 1:33 AM

From Meduza:

The Russian Foreign Ministry journal “International Affairs” recently published an article urging Moscow to view the Baltic Sea as a “potential theater of military operations.” Journalists at Agentstvo drew attention to the text on Tuesday, August 19. The monthly journal, whose editorial board is overseen by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, features essays on international politics, diplomacy, and global security. Meduza summarizes the boldest claims of the controversial text on the looming “Baltic danger.”

In the text, The Baltics: Guarantees of Danger, Nikolai Mezhevich claims that Russia’s “adversaries” among the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and Northern Europe (particularly Finland) are forming a so-called “gray zone” in the Baltic Sea. Mezhevich, a chief research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Europe, writes regularly about the foreign policies of the Baltic countries and NATO’s military activities in the region. He has been publishing in International Affairs since 2016 and often appears in the Russian media with warnings about alleged plots by Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania against Minsk, Moscow, and ethnic Russians.

Mezhevich’s concern about Russian security in the Baltic Sea follows the recent accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, which more than doubled the alliance’s land border with Russia to 2,550 kilometers (roughly 1,585 miles). He describes the emerging threat in the Baltics as an asymmetric conflict, warning that active military operations would pose great risks to major cities. “This is a space of heightened danger not only for direct military operations but also for proxy conflicts,” he argues. Mezhevich also cites the potential for “propaganda, active intelligence transitioning to terror, psychological operations, and the use of civilian objects for military purposes.”

He characterizes Russia’s ability to “break through” to the North Sea as seriously compromised:

Somewhere in the archives are dusty old plans for how the Soviet Baltic Fleet might be deployed, alongside the East German and Polish navies, back when Finland and Sweden were officially neutral. But even then, the mood was far from confident. In today’s situation, access to the North Sea itself would be of little use.

Mezhevich states that “the situation in the Baltic countries, Germany, Poland, and Northern European countries has become irreversible.” He warns that “only parties that support aggression against Russia” will “come to power” in these countries. He says the region is now cooperating strategically with Britain to create “military, political, and economic threats to Russia and Belarus.” However, Mezhevich maintains that Russia’s European adversaries won’t succeed where they have twice before: “[Their] logic is clear: it worked once, it will work again, but the conditions of the logical pair are not met. Russia in 1919, as well as in 1991, has different parameters from Russia in 2025.”

Mezhevich says Sweden’s entry into NATO could precipitate the “remilitarization” of Gotland (Sweden’s largest island, located in the middle of the Baltic Sea), but he argues that such plans “strangely” ignore the lessons Russia drew at Snake Island in the Black Sea.

Reported plans by Finland, Estonia, and Latvia to mine Russia’s borders also arouse Mezhevich’s concerns, though he simultaneously dismisses the concept as unrealistic. “No one really knows how to mine bare granite, swamps, or lakes,” he writes, adding that the installation of dense minefields and a border “fence” against Russia would be too costly. Senior economic officials in Estonia and Finland “know this perfectly well,” Mezhevich adds.

He nevertheless concludes the article with a warning that “geographic location and a complex of historical narratives” force Russia and its adversaries alike to consider the eastern part of the Baltic Sea as a “potential theater of military operations, possibly in classic, possibly in ‘gray’ formats.”

Poland:

An unidentified drone crashed and exploded in the village of Osiny, Poland. Approximately 100km from Belarus/Ukrainian border.

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— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 6:08 AM

The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the drone which crashed in a field in the village of Osiny, eastern Poland, turned out to be a Russian “Shahed.”
tvpworld.com/88441847/obj…

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 12:23 PM

Sweden:

Sweden is ready to contribute to Ukraine’s security guarantees.

“We want to be involved, but it must happen safely and reliably, and we need to know what we’re committing to.” – said Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/bm…

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 11:19 AM

Britain and (some of) the EU:

The Guardian reports that the UK Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Tony Radakin, stated that Britain is ready to deploy troops to Ukraine to protect its skies and ports. He will also inform his American counterparts about this at a meeting in the Pentagon.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025…

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 6:37 AM

Bloomberg sources report that around 10 countries, including the United Kingdom and France, are ready to send troops to Ukraine as a security guarantee.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article…

— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 9:08 AM

The US:

Russia is doing all it can to backtrack from this meeting. If I had to bet, I’d say it won’t happen.

There was no pressure. Trump walked back the sanctions promise and the ceasefire demand. He doesn’t send new weapon packages. Without pressure, Russia will just continue its war.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 12:24 PM

Needless to say, any ‘security guarantee’ where russia has a veto is actually a new russian invasion guarantee. No one will ever agree to this.

But the audacity, the entitlement, the confidence in everybody’s stupidity is just… next level.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 9:52 AM

There will not be a meeting between President Zelenskyy and Putin any time soon. There will not be a ceasefire. And there most certainly won’t be a peace agreement.

Please, somebody give this man a map already!🤦‍♀️

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 2:32 PM

Back to Ukraine.

💥”Lazar” unit bombards valuable Russian S-300V air defence system.

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— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 7:51 AM

After destroying a Russian air defense system, the drone operator lands on its target and watches the Russians bustling around as a sign of absolute superiority.

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— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 8:17 AM

Russia is testing a new LTE-enabled drone. Ukraine’s DIU released a 3D model and details, noting its use across the front. The UAV resembles a smaller Shahed-131 (Geran-1). Nearly half its parts, including key electronics, are made in China.
war-sanctions.gur.gov.ua/page-ag-4862

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 4:48 AM

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast:

A large fire broke out in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, where russia attacked critical infrastructure with drones.

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 6:05 PM

Risk of chemical poisoning in the Dnipro region: Local media report russian strikes on gas storage facilities and a huge fire.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 6:23 PM

Kharkiv Oblast:

In Kharkiv Oblast, a russian FPV drone killed a 70-year-old man and a 71-year-old woman in their car.

Somewhere, a russian soldier piloting that drone likely laughed — pleased to add two more kills to their brutal human safari, where murder is the mission, and joy is found in death.

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 6:17 AM

Donetsk:

Russia left Donetsk without water, turning it into a city facing a humanitarian disaster, where people literally have to shit into plastic bags and throw them out the windows because there is no water to flush the toilet.

Pardon my vivid description.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 11:04 AM

Ukrainian monitoring channels report that temporarily occupied Donetsk is under drone strikes.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 4:28 PM

Odesa:

The aftermath of Russia’s overnight attack in the southern Odesa region. In Izmail, a large fire broke out at a fuel and port infrastructure facility as a result of the strikes. At least one person has been reported injured.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 4:01 AM

Russia:

Fuel apocalypse in Russia! Long lines are forming at gas stations due to drone attacks on oil refineries.

Ukrainian sanctions work💪

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 1:45 PM

Day 1274 of my 3 day war. It’s going so well that a country with massive reserves of oil is running out of fuel.

I remain a master strategist.

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— Darth Putin (@darthputinkgb.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 12:00 PM

Rostov Oblast, Russia:

Novoshakhtinsk, Rostov Oblast.

​The Novoshakhtinsk oil products plant is on fire 🔥 👀

Ukrainian sanctions arrived.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM

Belgorod, Russia:

Belgorod, Russia is smoking hot 👀

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 9:38 AM

That’s enough for tonight.

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