President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented the National Legend of Ukraine awards to this year’s recipients. First Lady Olena Zelenska also took part in the ceremony.
The Head of State noted that Ukraine had marked the 35th anniversary of the restoration of independence and expressed gratitude to the Ukrainian warriors, thanks to whom we have our independence.
“We have our state, we have our independence, we have our strong warriors. We always thank them; thanks to them, we have our state, we have our independence. And I am grateful to everyone who is preserving our state in Ukraine, fighting, and to our friends and partners abroad who are making sure the world does not forget what is happening here. How Ukraine is truly fighting with dignity, not simply for its survival – for its independence, for life, for our lives,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The President expressed his gratitude to the National Legend recipients for helping preserve unity around Ukraine.
“I am sure that we will achieve victory, that we will preserve our state thanks to unity. It is very important,” he said.
The Head of State presented 18 National Legend of Ukraine awards to military and civilian Ukrainians. The recipients were:
Dissident, human rights activist, statesman, Hero of Ukraine Levko Lukianenko (posthumously). He endured Soviet prison camps, after which he served as a member of parliament for several terms and became Ukraine’s first ambassador to Canada. In 1959, he founded the underground Ukrainian Workers’ and Peasants’ Union in the Lviv region, and just two years later was sentenced to death, later commuted to 15 years in the camps. In 1976, he became a co-founder of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and the following year received another prison sentence for his human rights activities. In total, he spent more than 25 years in imprisonment and exile. In 1990, he returned to his homeland and headed the Ukrainian Republican Party. He wrote the text of the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, adopted on August 24, 1991.
Levko Lukianenko’s wife, Nadiia Lukianenko, emphasized that her husband had set himself the goal of taking Ukraine out of the Soviet Union as early as the beginning of the 1960s.
“He rightfully deserved this award. I think he is a legend of our Ukrainian state and society, and I am very grateful for this,” she said.
Members of the rock band Braty Hadiukiny – Serhii Kuzminskyi (posthumously), Pavlo Krachmalov, Mykhaylo Lundin and Ihor Melnychuk. The band was formed in 1988 and is one of the first Ukrainian rock groups to gain significant popularity in Ukraine and abroad. During its existence, Braty Hadiukiny released five studio albums and four live albums and performed extensively in Ukraine, Europe, and North America. Following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the band fully dedicated its concert activities to helping Ukraine and our army.
Founder of the World Central Kitchen charitable organization and United24 ambassador José Andrés. A chef and restaurateur, he is also a professor at George Washington University. His World Central Kitchen provides emergency food assistance during natural disasters and armed conflicts. On the second day after the full-scale war began, representatives of the organization were already at the Ukrainian border with Poland, and later they established a large-scale network inside Ukraine. They provided food packages and hot meals to people forced to leave their homes, residents of cities liberated from Russian occupation, including Bucha, Irpin and Kherson, and frontline communities. José Andrés also uses his influence to call on the international community to continue supporting Ukraine. > Александр Кондратенко: Europe’s Best Footballer of 1986, Igor Belanov. He played for Odesa SKA, Chornomorets and Dynamo Kyiv, where he gained international recognition. Winner of the 1986 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. He took part in the 1986 World Cup and was a runner-up at the 1988 European Championship. In the 1985–1986 season, he was named Europe’s best footballer and received the Ballon d’Or. After ending his career, he has worked to develop Ukrainian football. At the beginning of the war, he joined the Territorial Defense Forces and now actively supports the Defense Forces, visiting military hospitals and frontline areas.
Director of the Separate Unit of Prydniprovska Thermal Power Plant of DTEK Dniproenergo JSC, Anatolii Borychevskyi. He worked his way up from an electrical fitter at Kurakhove Thermal Power Plant to its head, and during the full-scale war returned to the plant, which was under daily shelling. Under his leadership, personnel worked under inhuman conditions to deal with the aftermath of around 40 direct attacks, until further operation of the facility became impossible. Anatolii Borychevskyi led a unique operation to dismantle and evacuate critical equipment from the plant, which was immediately sent to restore other damaged thermal power plants across the country.
Chief of the Staff Group of the 1st Separate Medical Battalion of the Land Forces, Senior Lieutenant Oleksandr Dziuba. He began serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine in August 2024. His unit provides a full cycle of medical support and covers around 100 kilometers of the frontline, combining forward evacuation and surgery. The Maul unmanned ground vehicle developed under Oleksandr Dziuba’s leadership has no equivalent in the world and has already carried out hundreds of successful evacuations.
Sculptor, People’s Artist of Ukraine Anatolii Kushch. His works include dozens of monuments and monumental-decorative compositions, the best known of which are the Independence Monument and the Archangel Michael on Maidan Nezalezhnosti; the monuments to the Founders of Kyivan Rus and Pylyp Orlyk in Kyiv; the series of monuments Taras's Paths installed in the Cherkasy region; the Cossack Graves monument in the Rivne region; and the Monument to the Victims of the 1933 Holodomor in Chicago.
Combat assault pilot, Hero of Ukraine Rostyslav Lazarenko (Hrim). As a Su-25 pilot, he carried out extremely difficult combat missions at critically low altitudes, destroying enemy armored vehicles, ammunition depots and personnel, and providing fire support for our warriors in the Kyiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions. He repeatedly returned safely to base in an aircraft damaged in combat. He holds the Armed Forces record for the number of combat sorties – more than 450, 120 more than Ivan Kozhedub’s historic record during the Second World War.
TV presenter and journalist Alla Mazur. She began her career as a journalist and presenter of landmark broadcasts on Ukrainian Radio. In 1993, she moved to television, and since 1997 has been the permanent presenter of TSN on the 1+1 channel and author of the analytical program “TSN. Tyzhden.” She has always demonstrated a clear civic position, covering the Orange Revolution, the Revolution of Dignity and the beginning of the war in Donbas. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion, her round-the-clock work on the national telethon and her constant presence on air became a symbol of resilience for millions of Ukrainians.
Alla Mazur noted that she had been fortunate to play a part in achieving Ukraine’s greatest dream – an independent state.
“If during all these years of my work and the work of all Ukrainian journalists, I managed to lay even one brick in the walls of our great, strong home, our beloved home, I will consider that I have not lived in vain,” she said. > Александр Кондратенко: Actor, film director and screenwriter Sean Penn. A three-time Academy Award winner and laureate at three of the world’s leading film festivals. One of Ukraine’s most active and consistent advocates since the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion. He was in Kyiv when the war began, where he had begun filming a movie about President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The project grew into a major documentary film about the resilience of Ukrainians, which Sean Penn presented at prominent international venues. He provides charitable assistance to internally displaced people both inside Ukraine and abroad, regularly meets with Ukrainian defenders and visits various combat units.
Commander of a squad in a company of the 1st Separate Medical Battalion of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Junior Lieutenant Antin Roshchin. As an operator of an unmanned ground vehicle, he has carried out more than two dozen successful evacuations of wounded personnel and is developing new safe routes. In particular, in July he spent more than five hours carrying out a mission to evacuate a wounded defender, saving the warrior’s life.
Artist, winner of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine, Tiberiy Szilvashi. He has held around 40 solo exhibitions. His works are held in the collections of Western European museums, as well as in cultural institutions in Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Uzhhorod and Kyiv, and in private collections in Europe and the United States. In 2022, he received the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine for his installation “Wings.”
Composer, Hero of Ukraine Yevhen Stankovych. Winner of numerous international and national art competitions and festivals. He has composed music for a number of dramatic productions and more than 100 feature films. In 1977, he received the Shevchenko Prize for his symphony “I Affirm Myself,” inspired by words by Pavlo Tychyna.
Major of the Medical Service Asan Charukhov. He heads the 1st Separate Medical Battalion of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, he was among the first to begin successfully evacuating wounded personnel using unmanned ground vehicles at the frontline. Under his leadership, the unit has been transformed into a modern medical hub with surgical teams, an inpatient facility and a unique digital patient-tracking system, Sisyphus. In 2026, his battalion, which provides medical coverage for around 100 kilometers of the frontline, became a base for improving military medicine standards.
Senior medical operating nurse of the medical company of the 1st Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine “Azov,” Nadiia Yarish. In 2022, she provided medical care to wounded fighters at Azovstal. She spent five months in Russian captivity at the Olenivka penal colony. She was thrown into a punishment cell for 41 days for speaking Ukrainian. She also witnessed the terrorist attack in Olenivka. After being released from captivity and undergoing rehabilitation, she returned to the Zaporizhzhia military hospital and was later assigned to Azov to serve.
Nadiia Yarish emphasized that the world must be told about the Ukrainian military personnel held in Russian captivity, especially the defenders of Mariupol.
“They suffer and are tortured every day. With each passing day, they lose their health and their lives. At this point, we know of 375 Ukrainian citizens who have been tortured to death in Russian torture chambers,” she said.
The President of Ukraine’s National Legend of Ukraine award was established in 2021. The Head of State presents the award to people who have contributed to the establishment of an independent Ukraine, the defense of the country and service to the Ukrainian people, the development of the national economy, science, education, culture, the arts, sport and health care, as well as for active charitable and civic activities.