About the ‘Dark Water’ EP

The five-track EP was recorded during improvisation sessions in the spring and summer of 2026.

‘Despite the circumstances in which we all live and created this music, the EP turned out to be full of energetic rhythms and breakbeats. It was an unconscious, life-affirming impulse’, Myshko Birchenko says about ‘Dark Water’.

The release also marks a new chapter for the band, particularly with its new quartet lineup featuring drummer Myshko Birchenko, guitarist Yevhen Puhachov, keyboardist Polina Maiboroda, and Dmytro Startsev on keyboards and effects. According to the band, these changes have ‘added new tones and textures to their music’.

The next two singles, ‘Hookah Jazz’ and ‘How To See Odd Things’, will be released on November 6 and 20, respectively. The full ‘Dark Water’ EP is set for release on December 4.

About Hyphen Dash’s previous releases

In May 2026, the band released the album ‘I Was Afraid Of Stone Rooms’, recorded during a two-day improvisation session at Duma studio. The idea for the release emerged from a period of creative stagnation the band members experienced following the release of their full-length album ‘LATE’.

The first half of ‘I Was Afraid Of Stone Rooms’ features ‘spontaneous duo sessions’ by Myshko Birchenko and Yevhen Puhachov, while the final eight of the album’s 13 tracks were recorded with Boris Mohylevskyi.

According to the description, the new single marks a departure from everything the artist has created before. Maiboroda spent ‘a lot of time’ working on ‘Playground’, creating the track ‘at home in the kitchen’, on Ukrzaliznytsia trains, and in Spain.

‘I’ve spent so much time making music for others that I felt a huge urge to do something uncompromisingly mine, — Polina explains. — I don’t recall precisely when the track began, but I remember it was an emotionally heavy period for me. Remarkably, the resulting music turned out to be the total opposite of my state of mind’.

The keyboard player notes that referencing a playground signifies ‘an escape to a space where all is still well’.

The release’s cover was created by OHS founder and Kyiv-based multidisciplinary artist Ivanko Masliuk, who works at the intersection of naive figuration and abstraction.

The work is dedicated to the playground where Polina used to play as a child.

Other releases featuring the musician

Back in May 2026, Hyphen Dash — featuring Polina on keyboards — released their album ‘I Was Afraid Of Stone Rooms’.

The idea for the release emerged from a period of creative stagnation the band members experienced after the release of ‘LATE’. The album was recorded during a two-day improvisation session at Duma Studio. Read more about it in our article.

The final ‘Baile del Sur’ event is described as ‘the culmination of an exploration’ and will focus on the authentic sounds of Mexico City’s underground scene.

The Kyiv scene will be represented in the lineup by Sazerac, Vova Siabruk, and human margareeta.

Tickets for Baile del Sur are available through Iriy’s Instagram.

About Siete Catorce

Marco Polo Gutiérrez, aka Siete Catorce, was born in Mexicali, and his musical tastes were shaped by the independent music scenes of northern Mexico and the U.S. border region.

The artist works across genres including deconstructed club, hard drum, digital cumbia, tribal, funk, and swung techno. He has released music on the N.A.A.F.I. label and runs his own label, SUBREAL.

Before ‘Baile del Sur’, Siete Catorce performed at the Unsound music festival.

About Iriy Records

Founded in 2024, the Kyiv-based label specializes in Ukrainian experimental bass music, with a roster that includes YUVI, Geyera, human margareeta, mertvi dereva, and 6ATbK0.

In December 2025, the label released ‘Nyzovyna’, a 17-track compilation album spanning two years of work and capturing the current landscape of Ukrainian experimental bass.

Read our interview with the Iriy label team: ‘True Music Basics: IRIY on Ukrainian bass music and their guiding principles’

The first edition of Impact Kyiv will explore how documenting wars and conflicts, including Russia’s war against Ukraine, has transformed over the years.

Among the key topics highlighted by the organizers are the evolution of visual language to sustain attention during prolonged conflicts and the impact of modern technologies on visual narratives and the ethics of covering them.

About the exhibitions at Impact Kyiv

The centerpiece of the event will be the exhibition ‘War and Conflict Photography in a Time of Global Change’, which will explore how conflict coverage has evolved since 2022.

Documentary and conceptual projects exploring international conflicts from around the world were selected through an open call. The projects will help visitors learn about events in conflict zones worldwide and examine the visual approaches artists use to address sensitive topics.

The main exhibition will also feature photographs taken as part of the Behind Blue Eyes project.

Another exhibition on the program is ‘YOUR RESISTANCE. Our Common History’ by French photographer Laurent Van der Stockt. He has documented the Gulf War and conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq, and Syria. In recent years, he has been working in Ukraine for Le Monde. Van der Stockt’s photographs will be presented alongside archival materials.

‘War and Conflict Photography in a Time of Global Change’ and ‘YOUR RESISTANCE. Our Common History’ will be on view from October 15 through November 8.

Talks and discussions

From October 15 to 18, the forum will feature panel discussions, public talks, and meetings with Ukrainian and international photographers.

Among the speakers are Patrick Chauvel, Oleksandr Hliadielov, Edmund Clark, Laurent Van der Stockt, Hilary Roberts, Semen Kuchvara, Eleonora Beley (Ukraine War Archive), Yefrem Lukatskyi, and Nataliia Humeniuk.

Among the featured discussion topics are Military (Vernacular) Photography, Documenting War: Stories of Ukrainian Photographers, The Visual Archive of War, The Transformation of Visual Language in Wartime, The Influence of Technology on Visual Communication, and Ethics in War Photography.

The forum will also feature a screening of a film by photographer Maksym Levin and a conversation with French photojournalist Patrick Chauvel.

Check out the full Impact Kyiv schedule on the forum website. Admission is free.

About the campaign

Styled by Jonathan Anderson and shot in a home setting, the campaign focuses on ‘everyday rituals’. The brand explains that the concept continues their approach of reimagining familiar objects through unexpected details.

British artist Blood Orange was invited to be the face of the brands' debut collaboration, as he ‘embodies the spirit of the collaboration’.

‘His boundary-pushing creativity and unconventional perspective help show how the silhouettes balance between the everyday and the extraordinary’, UGG explains.

Photographers Zhenia and Tania Posternak, who shot the new campaign, have previously worked on projects for Anderson. In particular, they created a teaser for Dior's Cruise 2027 show.

About the footwear in the collection

Anderson describes the collection as ‘experimental’ and explains that he was interested in looking at something as ‘instantly recognizable’ as UGG boots through the lens of JW Anderson.

The collaboration centers on two unisex footwear styles inspired by classic penny loafers: the UGG x JW Anderson Loafer Boot and the low-top UGG x JW Anderson Loafer.

The new silhouettes retain the original design's rounded toe, updated by Anderson with a classic loafer strap across the vamp and decorative box stitching. UGG and JW Anderson branding appears on the back of each shoe.

Both styles come in three colorways: walnut, khaki, and bright orange.

The UGG x JW Anderson Loafer and Loafer Boot will be available for purchase starting October 15 on the UGG and JW Anderson websites

This is the rock band's first track since their full-length album ‘True Bedroom Punk’, which featured a ‘nostalgic aesthetic’ that the band is now moving away from in favor of singles with a heavier sound and lyrical themes.

In ‘Anna’, The Unsleeping emphasizes the importance of love for your home, loved ones, and country in a world marked by war.

‘Don’t wait for a better future — build it yourself within the reality we’re in right now’, the band says.

The Unsleeping worked on the music for ‘Anna’ with Serhii Liubinskyi, founder of Revet Sound studio and member of the bands TOL, Pokruch and Velikhan. The accompanying music video was directed by Roman Volosevych (‘In Her Embrace’), who has been creating visuals for the band since almost the beginning of their career.

‘The idea for the video came from Zheka, or more precisely, from the conscious or unconscious mythologization of reality that he created in the song. He transposed his actual relationship with his wife Anna into a conceptual space, expanding on what love represents and what a love song signifies amidst war, — the director says. — I took this process of mythologization and decided to feature Anya in the video to capture that transition from a real person to a symbolic figure, turning her into an archetype through a specific myth.’

Although the video features the frontman’s wife, The Unsleeping note that the song is not a personal dedication to her.

About The Unsleeping’s previous release

The rock band released their debut album, ‘True Bedroom Punk’, in November 2024. It features 14 tracks, including the band's first collaborations and songs performed by other band members.

The album blends indie rock, alternative rock, and post-rock with piano elements and acoustic guitar tracks.

Some of the vocal parts were performed by guitarists Nazar Slobodianyk and Ivan Smirnov, as well as bassist Dmytro Levchenko, while the album's final drum track was recorded by drummer Sashko Oliinyk together with Nazar.

Guest verses for the release were recorded by rappers OTOY and Palindrom.

Instead of building a complex narrative or intricate set design, the shoot focused on a series of intimate portraits.

According to RUSLAN BAGINSKIY, the concept of an actor’s transformation is further explored through headwear as a key element that can ‘change the mood, emphasize character, or allow you to discover something new about yourself’.

‘I really value the fact that pieces with such different personalities can coexist within our collections, resonate with completely different people, and at the same time bring them together. A hat can entirely shift the mood of a look — or even the way we perceive a person. There’s a certain magic in that transformation, and that’s exactly what we wanted to capture in the shoot with Sasha’, Ruslan Baginskiy adds.

The photoshoot was accompanied by a short interview with Oleksandr Rudynskyi, in which the actor talks about his acting dreams, his favorite childhood film, his favorite type of headwear, and more.

The RUSLAN BAGINSKIY Fall collection is available in physical stores and online on the brand’s website.

About Oleksandr Rudynskyi’s projects

The actor is set to appear in Netflix's upcoming live-action adaptation of the iconic anime ‘Gundam’, currently in production, joining a cast that includes Sydney Sweeney, Noah Centineo (‘To All the Boys I've Loved Before’), and Jason Isaacs (‘The White Lotus’).

‘Gundam’ is one of the longest-running media franchises in anime history, encompassing TV series, specials, feature films, video games, books, and manga. It pioneered a distinct subgenre known as ‘mecha’, which features giant piloted combat robots.

‘Gundam’ focuses on fictional worlds, themes of war, and mecha. The franchise’s first anime series, ‘Mobile Suit Gundam’, premiered in 1979. The franchise is currently owned by the Japanese corporation Bandai Namco Holdings, which operates in the toy, video game, arcade, anime, restaurant, and amusement park industries.

The nominees for the European Film Academy Awards, often referred to as the ‘European Oscars’, will be announced on 14 November this year, while the winners will be revealed on 16 January 2027 at the 39th awards ceremony in Athens.

About ‘Homecoming’

The short film by Malashchuk and Khimei tells the story of a young man who left Ukraine at the start of the full-scale invasion and returns several years later — not in person, but via a robotic dog that he controls remotely from his room.

Despite his remote presence and the unstable video signal, the young man manages to reconnect with his native Khortytsia Island and his memories of it.

The directors explain that the film explores technology as a means of reconnection, while the robotic dog takes on a new meaning, as such devices are primarily used by the Ukrainian military for reconnaissance.

‘For us, this is not just a film, but also a gesture: an insistence that connection continues despite the rupture, that distance cannot erase belonging, and that imagination and art remain powerful tools for preserving identity’.

The film had its Ukrainian premiere in June at Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. From 27 March to 12 September 2026, it was also part of the international exhibition ‘Joy’ at PinchukArtCentre.

In addition, ‘Homecoming’ won the top prize at the Lviv International Short Film Festival Wiz-Art, whose 17th edition took place from 22 to 27 September.

About ‘Easter Day’

‘Easter Day’, a Ukrainian-French co-production, was directed by Mykola Zasieiev and is based on the real-life experience of the director’s friend, screenwriter Illia Volynets-Tryfonov.

The film's events unfold on Easter Sunday, when two servicemen from a military recruitment centre drive through the streets of Kyiv in search of men of mobilisation age. Eventually, they stop a young man named Sashko, who asks them to buy food for his cat before taking him to a military base.

About ‘Kyiv Cake’

‘Kyiv Cake’, a Ukrainian-Estonian animated film by Mykyta Lyskov, focuses on the life of a poor Ukrainian family in present-day Ukraine, particularly the birth of a child. ‘The parents do everything possible to survive, but just when the crisis reaches its peak, a new danger flares up’, reads the synopsis.

Lyskov says the film was inspired by ‘the feelings and emotions that emerged from experiencing life under the extreme conditions’ of the full-scale Russian invasion.

As of 11:00 AM on October 7, the roof and part of the walls of the building were still burning. Fragments of a Russian missile with a warhead fell onto the pavilions, though it is currently unknown whether it detonated—the wreckage was taken away by the State Emergency Service (DSNS) for examination.

According to Radostina, the pavilions were used for filming and events. Following the Kyiv City State Administration's (KMDA) introduction of a temporary ban on public events on September 10, the Dovzhenko Film Studio was in the process of obtaining a permit to host events.

As a result, the schedule for using the facilities was pushed back, so there was neither equipment nor staff inside the pavilions at the time of the strike.

What will happen to the damaged pavilions?

According to Yuliia, the Film Studios team has already spoken with Minister of Culture Tetiana Berezhna and ‘reached certain agreements’ regarding the restoration of the pavilions. Dovzhenko Film Studios is currently awaiting the conclusions of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in order to assess the damage and develop a restoration plan.

Dovzhenko Film Studios has been damaged for the third time. The first two strikes occurred on June 2 and June 15. One of them was a direct hit on the costume department, where the film studio's archive was stored.

According to the National Police, as of 11:30 AM, two people had been killed in Kyiv as a result of the Russian attack. Nine more people, including three children, were killed after a missile struck an apartment building in Pryluky. There are also reports of 38 injured. One person was also killed in Kremenchuk.

In the track, human margareeta turns to images of the mountains and water as ‘witnesses’ to the flooding of the valley, which was transformed into silt. The village of Bakota and approximately 30 neighboring settlements ended up underwater in 1981 during the construction of the hydroelectric power plant (HPP) on the Dniester.

In addition, the composition tells the story of the forced resettlement of local residents and the cutting down of trees that preceded the flooding.

The violin and guitar on ‘underwater blues’ are complemented by ambient sounds that convey ‘the atmosphere of the flooded valley’. The guitar part for the single was recorded by indie musician cafe ptakh, who took part in DTF Magazine’s Mirage Camp in 2024.

The music video was filmed on location at Bakota Bay and directed by Maks Lisovskyi.

About human margareeta’s previous releases

In April 2025, the musician’s debut album was released on Iriy Records. On the seven-track ‘Broken’, written during the full-scale invasion, the producer explores personal states through ‘anxiety, fragility, and fragmentation’.

The tracks on the album are characterized by broken rhythms, while its structure is built around ‘unpredictability and imbalance’.

human margareeta also released her debut music video for the single ‘Kryshtal’, directed by independent filmmaker Reveka R.

In May 2026, the producer released the single ‘help me’ on the same label, a track she had written back in 2023. She described it as ‘a cry for help, a plea for silence and balance in a chaotic world’.

‘The sense of frustration was intensified by the sleep problems Margo had struggled with for a decade. The phrase ‘i just wanna sleep’ serves both as the climax of the track and an expression of that frustration’, the description reads.

Part of the vocals for the single were recorded through an old telephone handset, while the tempo of ‘help me’ ranges from 120 to 176 BPM. The second half of the track, meanwhile, is described as a homage to Maiden Voyage by jazz musician Herbie Hancock.

About the сoncept behind ‘Ukrainian People's Radio’

The album’s central themes are unity and inner strength. Speaking to DTF Magazine, Sashko Kudrynetskyi from PVNCH explains that the project aims to ‘destroy’ the inferiority complex within Ukrainian rap and demonstrate that the genre, like Ukrainian culture as a whole, is ‘mature, constantly evolving, built across generations and shaped by generations, with a voice and vision to share with the world’.

‘Above all, this is music of the people — it captures the conversations happening in kitchens, barbershops, or dugouts and puts them into song. That is why we are the voice of the people and carry these exact ideas’, he says.

The idea for the large-scale hip-hop project came to AB3 Music creative director Illia Kuchman two years ago, before the label itself was established. From the very start, the team had planned to involve many artists, and work on ‘Ukrainian People's Radio’ took around six months.

Who took part in the creation of ‘Ukrainian People's Radio’?

According to Kudrynetskyi, most of the music was created specifically for ‘Ukrainian People's Radio’, though artists also brought in ready-made tracks that aligned with the overall concept.

‘Ukrainian People's Radio’ was divided into three separate albums: ‘U’, ‘N’ and ‘R’. Each features 10 tracks and four radio-style jingles voiced by PVNCH themselves.

‘Everything was put together for maximum listening ease. So whether they’re in the car, at home, at a party or just listening through headphones, they can enjoy the full diversity of Ukrainian rap in one continuous flow… These albums are completely different, eclectic and offer something for every taste. In fact, this total contrast in tracks, content, and artists is precisely what they have in common’.

The final selection of 30 tracks was chosen from more than 60 compositions. The recordings featured TNMK, alyona alyona, MC Petya, cybermykola, MUCHNOY, loco-flamer, SKOFKA, KALUSH Orchestra, roma maik, Dovhyi Pes, Frai i skalo and BRATSKE KOLO, as well as Third Army Corps service members ANYMAN, Krov, Yuhar, Sidzhyk and MARMEK, who worked on their tracks while serving.

Production on ‘Ukrainian People's Radio’ was handled by Oleksandr Musevych, Sieva Shutka from DK Enerhetyk, Mirage Camp 2024 participant fimamaru, beatmakers YungKerya, Big Brook and Santorin, and producer Hadouken, whose track ‘Let’s Go’ with rapper Key Glock went platinum in the US.

The album also features MC Petya’s single ‘Kanives’, which was used in 398,000 videos and reached 189,000 streams on Spotify.. Producer GERALD 032 shared more about the story behind the collaboration with the Third Army Corps in our article.

‘The entire project was created specifically to prove that these imagined divides don't exist — we are united, we stand together and we can work effectively towards a common goal’, Kudrynetskyi adds, referring to the collaboration between military personnel and civilian artists on the project.

In line with previous AB3 Music releases, royalties from ‘Ukrainian People's Radio’ will go towards supporting the Third Army Corps.

About AB3 Music’s previous releases

In 2024, the Third Assault Brigade (now the Third Army Corps) unveiled ‘EPOKHA’ — a compilation album featuring tracks by Ukrainian artists and bands, accompanied by a series of music videos directed by Ukrainian filmmakers. The project culminated in a concert featuring the participating artists.

Tracks for ‘EPOKHA’ were recorded by Hatespeech, DK Enerhetyk, 229, PVNCH, Renie Cares, Prokliatyi ***, Zwyntar and Proroky, while directors Illia Dutsyk, Sasha Tuz, Anton Satanovskyi, Vadym Piniahin, Mariia Ozirna, Kateryna Lemeshynska, directing duo LAMPERFECT and Yevhenii Lesnevskyi also contributed to the project.

In December 2025, service members of the Third Assault Brigade released the album ‘Camp3’. Over three days, they created six tracks together with Ukrainian musicians GRABAR, Badwor7h, Yuvi, Hyphen Dash, Zheka Kurhan and Sasha Chemerov.

The second military music camp resulted in the album ‘1654’, recorded by active-duty military artists of the Third Army Corps between combat missions, under the mentorship of Kurs Valüt, The Maneken, Zhenia Kurhan, Nord Division and Hyphen Dash.

DTF Magazine spoke with the brand’s co-founder, Ksenia Schnaider, about the collaboration and how it was presented at the show

About the London Show

For the show, the brand chose PALLADIUM’s classic Pampa boots. Some pairs were left unmodified and styled with flowers, while others were customised at the KSENIASCHNAIDER studio in Kyiv: using denim elements from old pairs of jeans, the team transformed the boots into knee-high and over-the-knee styles.

Schnaider adds that, embodying the brands’ shared values of ‘practicality and versatility’, the boots on the runway served as a complement to the outfits ‘without drawing too much attention to themselves’.

According to Ksenia, the collaborative footwear was showcased exclusively on the runway this season, but the brands are preparing commercial production of the models for 2027.

About UTC+1

Through sports uniforms, merchandise, graphic symbols, logos, numbers and names, KSENIASCHNAIDER’s new collection explores themes of belonging and the visual language of clothing.

For the first time since the brand’s founding in 2011, Anton Schnaider takes on the role of co-creative director alongside Ksenia. His background in graphic design played a key role in shaping the visual identity of UTC+1.

‘Logos, numbers, surnames, flags, sponsor marks and crests — familiar visual codes — speak of loyalty, origins, pride, memory and collective identity’, the brand explains.

The collection includes tank tops, T-shirts, shirts, long sleeve T-shirts, bodysuits, denim and leather suits, as well as trekking and cargo trousers and shorts.

Another element of UTC+1 is a new collaboration with Lee Cooper. According to KSENIASCHNAIDER, previous collaborations between the brands explored functionality through denim, while for this third collaboration, that ‘utilitarian language’ was made softer.

Functional items were crafted from fabrics associated with lightness and summer wardrobes. The collaboration includes jackets and trousers with cargo pockets, a jumpsuit, a dress and skirts.

‘Durable yet delicate, practical yet playful — walkwear for summer’, KSENIASCHNAIDER describes the collaboration.

Daybreak will be able to identify vulnerabilities in digital systems and help address them. In addition, Ukraine has gained access to the advanced GPT-5.6 Sol model.

In 2025, Ukraine’s national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) recorded nearly 6,000 cyberattacks.

‘Ukraine has shown under the most extreme pressure that cyber defence is a central part of national security. Protecting civilian infrastructure means defending it against both physical and digital attacks, so people can continue to live, work and access essential services’, George Osborne, Head of OpenAI for Countries, said.

In a comment to the BBC, Jamie MacColl, Senior Research Fellow in Cybersecurity at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), added that Western technology companies have been supporting Ukraine ‘for some time’, in particular to gain access to data and intelligence from a real-world war. In addition to OpenAI, Ukraine also has access to similar technologies from Google.

‘Given this, it is no surprise that OpenAI is now also providing defensive cyber security services’, he said.

At the same time, Russia also uses technology from Western companies to attack Ukraine. In September, Anthropic reported that its Claude platform was accessed via VPNs to program Russian drones and attempt to gain unauthorized access to Ukrainian government services.

Outerwear in the collection is represented by fleece jackets with SKY and SUNSET prints, acid-washed denim jackets, plaid cargo jackets, corduroy shirts, and quilted shirts.

‘Fall is our favorite season, and this time we wanted not only to work with ready-made materials but also to create our own fabric designs, colors and prints. At the same time, it was important to keep what we love about german. in the fall: fleece, plaid, denim and layering’, german. founder Valeriia Tsymbal says.

german. also worked with a waterproof material for the first time, using it for a rain jacket and cargo pants in black and khaki.

The collection’s long-sleeve T-shirts feature four designs: a boot print, a lighter, a receipt, and a print from the brand’s first collaboration with ‘ebaut’.

Among other items in the collection are sweaters, including zippered ones, microfleece thermal underwear, hoodies and sweatpants, zip-hoodies, jeans, and fleece jackets. Accessories are represented by beanies in seven colorways.

Items from the german. autumn collection are already available on the brand's website.

About german.

german. was founded in 2020 by Valeriia Tsymbal from Cherkasy. It originated from German Prostir, a space for Ukrainian brands that Valeriia opened in the city before launching the full-fledged brand, and the first-ever german. item was a tracksuit.

After a year of operation and the release of several collections, german. underwent a large-scale rebranding, focusing on a specific concept for each drop, universally cut unisex items, and campaigns to promote the collections.

DTF Magazine spoke to keep founder Mykola Serezitinov about the new space and how the brand adapted its operations after its office was destroyed as a result of a Russian strike in June 2026

The brand initially planned to open the store on September 1, but the opening was postponed due to circumstances unrelated to the destruction.

The destruction of the office further slowed down work on the space and preparations for the opening, but keep decided not to abandon the idea and to continue working on the project.

‘I believe that as a Kyiv-based brand, we are very deeply integrated into the city and its locations. Therefore, offline presence in the ‘Upper Town’ is quite important in our business model’, Mykola explains.

About the space design and location features

keep’s first space was located on Yaroslaviv Val Street, while the second, which is still operating, is at 6A Zolotovoritska Street.

After opening the new store, keep plans to continue operating the showroom at 6A Zolotovoritska Street. For now, the team plans to experiment with differences between the two locations, including their product ranges.

The team decided to stay in this part of Kyiv and chose a courtyard at 2A Zolotovoritska Street.

The brand worked on the store’s design together with all design agency. ‘As an owner, I wanted to embody the character of keep. I wanted eclecticism, classic lines and street details’, Serezitinov says.

The key colors chosen for the space are keep’s signature green and the brand’s ‘favorite milky’ shade. The facade retains its original rough-cast plaster, while the stairs are covered in red tiles. The store is also equipped with a wheelchair lift.

Mykola adds that, as a bag brand, wall display was important for keep, so preference was given to hooks rather than shelves. In the future, keep plans to use the space to showcase collaborations and host performative events.

During the store’s opening weekend, it will feature an installation dedicated to the destruction of keep’s premises:

‘It won’t dwell on the suffering in any way. On the contrary, we view our past experience as fertilizer that allows us to bloom today. To bloom through new experiences, new products, creativity, style, the desire to live. And to keep moving forward’.

About the offline exclusive and the store opening

The first accessory that the brand will exclusively present in the new store is the Østerbro bag.

It is a reversible unisex bag made from CORDURA and lightweight nylon, featuring a system of pockets and internal compartments, as well as an adjustable strap that allows the bag to be carried by hand or worn over the shoulder.

About the destruction of keep's premises and the brand's work 

The strike on Kyiv damaged keep’s office, warehouse facilities, studio, and part of the brand’s production responsible for woven products and vests — a line that keep launched in 2025.

At the same time, according to Serezitinov, keep’s main production facility in Chernihiv continues to operate. The brand is also planning to open an additional workshop in Chernivtsi and is currently looking for seamstresses, cutters and other staff.

Currently, the brand has not restored the production pace and volumes that it had before the attack.  ‘We lost a huge stock of products and materials, were in debt to our customers, and haven’t recovered from it’, Mykola says.

Serezitinov adds that the brand still cannot produce the quantity of goods needed for a constant supply, particularly high-demand accessories. As a result, keep had to reduce and optimize its product range. However, according to Mykola, the attack also ‘motivated’ the brand to work on new silhouettes rather than trying to reproduce the old ones.

Following the attack, keep released a drop of items that survived the strike. They were intentionally not cleaned and are being sold in the condition they were pulled out from under the rubble. Read more about the drop and the attack on keep in our article.

‘Traces’ shines a light on Ukrainian women who, after surviving sexual violence and torture during Russia’s war, refuse to remain silent. Through the journey of Iryna Dovhan, a former captive turned activist, who documents testimonies of affected women on the de-occupied territories of Ukraine, the film ‘weaves a collective portrait of trauma while opening space for hope’.

‘Despite the trauma, the six women featured in the film have come together to resist and demand accountability’, the film’s synopsis states. The film ‘Traces’ is based on the personal experience of director Alisa Kovalenko, who was captured by Russian forces in 2014, as well as on testimonies from the SEMA Ukraine community.

‘My journey to making this film began in captivity’. We speak to the directors of the Ukrainian film ‘Traces’

The producers of ‘Traces’ are Olha Brehman and Nataliia Libet through their production company 2Brave Productions (‘Timestamp’). The film was acquired by French broadcaster ARTE France while it was still in production.

In February 2026, ‘Traces’ received the Audience Award in the Panorama Dokumente section at the Berlinale.

What other films competed in Ukraine’s Oscar selection

‘The Eternity Man’, dir. Ivan Nikolaichuk;
‘War Through the Eyes of Animals’, dir. Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi, Yuliia Shashkova, Maksym Tuzov, Oleksii Mamedov, Sviatoslav Kostiuk, Ivan Sautkin, Andrii Lidahovskyi;
‘Killhouse’, dir. Liubomyr Levytskyi;
‘The Last Prometheus of Donbas’, dir. Anton Shtuka;
‘A Simple Soldier’, dir. Artem Ryzhykov, Juan Camilo Cruz;
‘Silent Flood’, dir. Dmytro Sukholytykyi-Sobchuk;
‘The Last Message’, dir. Andrii Voloshyn, Oleksii Lebediev.

In 2025, Ukraine was represented at the Oscars by Mstyslav Chernov’s ‘2000 Meters to Andriivka’. The film competed in the Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature Film categories. It made the shortlist for Best Documentary Feature Film, but ultimately was not selected as a final Oscar nominee.

During her lifetime, the artist explored themes of presence and absence, loss and memory, with the mythological figure of the shcheznyk — ‘a vanishing creature’ — at the center of her work. DTF Magazine spoke with the exhibition’s curator and co-author of the zine, Alia Siehal, and takes a closer look at the ‘In the Memory of Shcheznyk’ publication

About the concept

According to Alia Siehal, the idea for the zine emerged during preparations for an exhibition held at Vienna’s arka arka gallery in April 2026. The exhibition itself was driven by the need to ‘continue the conversation around the themes that Marharyta explored in her work during her lifetime’.

In Marharyta’s work, the mythological figure of the shcheznyk was a way of telling stories about people ‘on the edges of visibility’, namely ‘those who go unnoticed and gradually fade from attention and memory’. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, this metaphor took on a literal meaning tied to violent loss.

Gathering material for the exposition, the curator worked with Marharyta's close ones so that through their works they would continue the main concept of her art.

‘It was important for us not to try to sum up her practice or create a complete portrait of the artist, but to continue the conversation interrupted by her death’, Alia explains.

As part of the work on the exhibition, Siehal interviewed three Ukrainian artists: Dasha Chechushkova, Illia Todurkin and Mark Chehodaiev.

According to Siehal, the interviews ‘provided important context for the works and told the story of Marharyta through specific shared experiences’. However, she understood that much of these conversations could not be reproduced in the exhibition space. This led to the idea of extending the exhibition and its central concept in the physical format of a zine.

‘It was important to me to realize this specifically as a zine rather than a traditional exhibition catalogue, — Alia says. — This format is much closer to Marharyta’s own environment and way of working — self-publishing, small print runs, and things passed from hand to hand’.

About the zine’s content

The visual component of ‘In the Memory of Shcheznyk’ is formed by works of Polovinko and her loved ones, shots of the artworks from the exhibition itself, and archival materials from her life.

The latter include photographs documenting the artist’s life with friends and colleagues, her creative process, and their meetings.

‘These are materials that, before her death, might not have been perceived as something that needed to be archived at all, — Alia says. — For example, the zine includes photographs of Marharyta and Illia [Todurkin] drawing together, as well as a photograph from Mark [Chehodaiev]’s apartment on Sofiivska Street in 2021, where their circle of friends had gathered at the time. Today, the photograph has taken on a very different meaning: some of the people in the photo have moved abroad, some have joined the military, and Marharyta was killed on the front line’.

The interviews with artists Dasha Chechushkova, Illia Todurkin and Mark Chehodaiev also became part of the zine. Describing their significance, Siehal says:

‘In my conversation with Illia, their practice of drawing together became important. It was never conceived as an ‘artistic method’ but was just part of their friendship and the time they spent together. In my conversation with Dasha, it was the story of Marharyta as a mermaid — an image that was initially a sketch for a glass painting and, after her death, was recreated in chalk on a concrete slab by the sea. With Mark, it was his personal archive, including that group photograph from 2021’.

For the publication, Alia Siehal also wrote her own curatorial text. In it, the art historian explores ‘the boundary between disappearance and visibility, loss and the necessity to remember’.

She began it with an interpretation of the concept of the shcheznyk and continued with an idea that Marharyta herself had formulated in a text for the online platform Secondary Archive: ‘War, while killing people, at the same time seemingly ‘highlights’ them and makes them visible to the collective gaze’.

Summing up the contents of the publication, Alia emphasizes that the authors deliberately did not want to turn the zine into ‘a representative catalogue of Marharyta’s work or try to include ‘everything important’ in it’.

‘This could easily create an illusion of completeness around her legacy, when in fact the work of engaging with it is only beginning’, the curator says.

You can purchase the zine ‘In the Memory of Shcheznyk’ with a donation toward activities related to Marharyta Polovinko's artistic legacy. You can fill out the order form here.

More about the ‘In the Memory of Shcheznyk’ exhibition

The exhibition, held at Vienna’s arka arka gallery from April 3 to 14, 2026, featured works by Marharyta Polovinko, as well as her friends and loved ones. Among the artist’s works on display were four paintings from the ‘Yanholy 502’ series, dedicated to children who were killed as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

According to Alya Segal, the exposition was initially planned to be larger. However, during the process, the organizers abandoned ‘the attempt to collect as many statements as possible’, focusing instead on several specific stories.

The works presented as part of the exhibition explore the central themes of Marharyta’s practice: presence and absence, as well as vulnerability, home as a temporary state, and memory as a form of care.

About Marharyta Polovinko

Ukrainian artist Marharyta Polovinko was born in 1994 in Kryvyi Rih. In 2019, she moved to Kyiv, where she received her art education at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture.

Before the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Marharyta’s work explored themes of post-industrial society, marginalization and human loneliness. After the invasion began, she fully connected her artistic practice to the context of the war.

Polovinko’s first solo exhibition was held in 2023 at the Detenpyla Art Gallery in Lviv.

From 2022, the artist was also involved in volunteer work, and in late 2024, she joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. On April 5, 2025, Marharyta Polovinko was killed in a combat zone while carrying out a mission.

Marta Kostiuk has become the second Ukrainian woman to reach the top ten of the WTA ranking. She currently has 3,980 points.

Elina Svitolina became the first Ukrainian woman in the WTA top ten: following her victory in February 2017 at the tournament in Dubai, she debuted in 10th place. Already in September 2017, Elina became the world's number three, which remains the best result in the history of Ukrainian tennis.

In the spring of 2022, Svitolina took a break due to her pregnancy and returned to the tour in April 2023. In February 2026, she returned to the top ten, taking 10th place, and in March she reached her highest position of the year so far, which is seventh. Elina Svitolina currently has 4,809 points.

On the Ukrainian players’ results at the US Open

Elina Svitolina exited the battle for the US Open title in the third round. The Ukrainian lost a three-set match to ‘neutral’ player Anna Kalinskaya (No. 22) with a score of 3:6, 6:2, 3:6.

The tennis player hasn't managed to advance to the second week of the American major since 2021.

Meanwhile, Kostiuk reached the fourth round of the US Open for the second consecutive year, but lost to Czech player Linda Nosková (No. 6). The match lasted nearly two and a half hours and ended with a score of 5:7, 7:5, 4:6.

Kostiuk also lost to Nosková in the semifinals of this year’s Wimbledon.

From September 22–27, Svitolina will play for the Ukrainian national team at the Billie Jean King Cup, and she will also most likely participate in the final, Asian part of the season, which includes, in particular, the WTA 500 tournament in Tokyo (starting October 20) and two WTA 1000 tournaments — in Beijing (starting September 24) and Wuhan (starting October 6).

Among the other artists whose music will feature in the film are Brian Eno, Morphine, Ann Annie, Marwan and VIA 229. The tracks will be complemented by original music from composer Brad Oberhofer (‘The Andy Warhol Diaries’) and Ukrainian electronic musician Koloah.

According to the director, the team wanted the film’s soundtrack to reflect the tastes of its main characters, so they brought together tracks by Ukrainian, Western European and American artists.

‘The film is a tapestry of protagonists, and so too is the score and its creators… I wanted to incorporate just as much of the Western culture music in the fabric of the film as the Ukrainian music, to better represent just how globally-influenced this young generation of Ukrainians are’, Haney explains.

The film is concluded by the track ‘Do Not Go Quietly Unto Your Grave’ by the band Morphine, performed by a folk choir from Kyiv.

About ‘Black Sunflowers’

‘Black Sunflowers’ tells the story of Ukrainian youth ‘balancing between the front line and civilian life’. The film premiered in the documentary program of the Toronto International Film Festival.

The film follows the story of Ivan, a military driver who organizes street races when he is off duty; a young combat veteran with an amputation who ‘finds a sense of freedom at raves despite his running blade’; and Nikoletta, a young woman who swapped nature photography for war photography.

‘The film embodies a youthful spirit as it shifts between eclectic settings, from an underground dance club to a frontline barracks to a countryside swimming hole. We get to experience this generation in all its complexity as people grapple with tragedy, duty, disillusionment, and yearning for a better future’, the festival’s website says.

Recalling his first visit to Ukraine, director James Marcus Haney says he was surprised by how much ‘normal life carried on despite the war’.

‘I’ve met an electronic DJ who enlisted in the army and still performs back home when he is on leave. A nature photographer turned war journalist. Teenagers who now already have 2.5 years of combat experience at the zero line. Lovers pulled apart to different battlegrounds. And as I looked into these faces, I couldn’t help but see parts of myself’, he tells Variety.

Among the producers of ‘Black Sunflowers’ are Ukrainians Yevhenii Zdorovylo and the husband-and-wife team Volodymyr and Anna Yatsenko (‘U Are the Universe’). One of the executive producers is Sean Penn, who has supported Ukraine by covering the war through film projects.

HLIBOROB frontman Illia Miroshnyk became a performer in the play ‘Nero’ at the age of 17, and the track is based on his memories of the experience.

‘The phenomenon of combining the brutality of factories and cranes, the sharp waves of the Sea of Azov in Mariupol, and 600 human hearts and living flesh had a profound impact on him’, the band adds.

The track and video work as a cultural memory and an ‘artistic shock’, as well as a trigger for ‘feelings and an experience that few of us are likely to ever live through again’.

The band filmed the ‘NERO’ visual in Lviv at the Lesia Ukrainka Theater, and Sashko Brama directed the video.

According to him, the theater supported the band and the production team by providing the space and equipment for the shoot.

‘The underground romance of HLIBOROB is very close to my heart. The guys aren’t afraid to explore, they experiment with form, and they work with complex worldview themes, — Brama shares. — Even during our first call, I had the feeling that these are my guys, people I want to collaborate with. We know the direction, but we don’t know what the road will look like or where it will lead us. It’s a responsibility because we’re working on the artist’s image. At the same time, it’s a very exciting and unpredictable process that gives birth to unexpected creative solutions’.

About the play ‘Nero’

The play ‘Nero’ was staged in 2019 by director Vlad Troitskyi, with the participation of the musical ensembles Nova Opera and TseSho, as well as the Dakh and Teatromania theaters.

The shipyard docks of the Azov Ship Repair Plant were chosen as the location, and in order to enter the restricted site, audience members had to obtain special accreditation.

The performance incorporated cranes and a train, while parts of the docks were partially flooded.

The main themes of ‘Nero’ are life, rebirth, and purification. HLIBOROB also touches on some of them in their track:

‘Illuminated subway ads. Trams heading back to the depot. Shopping malls, grocery stores, street markets. NERO washes it all away’.

About HLIBOROB

The band’s story began in the Mariupol community of the Donetsk region, where vocalist Illia Miroshnyk first started out as a solo artist.

In 2024, HLIBOROB released their debut EP, ‘Donbass Blues’, featuring tracks that were included in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. In 2025, the band was nominated for the Megogo Music Awards in the ‘New Wave: Alternative / Indie Band’ category.

In 2025, the band released their debut album, ‘Nachuvaysia’. The release is divided into two parts — romantic and apocalyptic. According to the band, these are the two experiences its members are living through.

‘Nachuvaisia’ captures the contrast of coming of age during wartime, when war intertwines with the ‘ordinary problems of youth’. HLIBOROB portray the duality of the world as ‘an escape from youth amid brutalism and a black-and-white universe filled with vivid flashes of life’. Read more about the album in our article.

About COLEOPTERA SYSTEM

The brand’s team says that the RIOTDIVISION collection was inspired by the stag beetle: during flight, they spread their wings, and after landing, they hide them beneath a hard chitinous shell.

This principle of natural transformation in the COLEOPTERA collection has been embodied in a pocket system that, like wings, can open and hide behind the outer layer.

It took almost a year to develop the technology. During the work, the team created seven experimental samples, and RIOTDIVISION calls reproducing the working principle and translating the biological mechanism into an item that has to function in real movement the most difficult part of the process.

‘Additional space remains invisible until it becomes necessary. Just like in nature, function here is not added to form — it is part of it. This principle runs through all the key pieces in the collection’, the brand’s team says.

About the items from the collection

The drop includes an everyday 20-liter backpack equipped with a separate laptop compartment, a ventilated back panel, and anatomically shaped removable shoulder straps.

COLEOPTERA SYSTEM is embodied in it through pockets that pull out from the front pocket and fasten onto the surface of the backpack with metal snaps.

RIOTDIVISION also introduced a tote bag with a capacity ranging from 7 to 12 liters. It features a main compartment with one mesh pocket and two zippered pockets, as well as an external hidden COLEOPTERA SYSTEM pocket.

Another accessory in the collection is a sacoche bag with two zippered compartments and an internal mesh pocket. At the same time, it was not equipped with COLEOPTERA SYSTEM pockets.

The backpack and tote bag were released in black and khaki colors. The sacoche is available in khaki only.

For the cargo pants, the brand chose a relaxed fit. They are equipped with an elastic waistband featuring an integrated belt, four standard pockets, and two side COLEOPTERA SYSTEM pockets. They were released in black and khaki colors.

All items in the collection are made of nylon with a water-repellent finish and ripstop weave. According to the brand team, the material's texture resembles the delicate wings of a beetle — ‘as if the natural material of the wing had been scaled up to the size of a textile fabric’.

‘The most challenging part was achieving a balance between all these characteristics at the same time. It was impossible to solve the issue of compactness separately from strength, pocket access, or the operation of the mechanism itself. Changing one element affected the entire structure, which is why the process took so much time’, RIOTDIVISION explains.

Another element of the collection in the future will be a functional jacket featuring COLEOPTERA SYSTEM. The brand says that its mass production became RIOTDIVISION's ‘biggest challenge’, so it will be released later.

Items from the COLEOPTERA collection are available for purchase on the RIOTDIVISION website.

According to the Meze team, the model delivers a sound presentation similar to full-scale audio systems and offers ‘the most immersive sonic experience Meze has ever created’.

‘The soundstage expands naturally beyond the confines of the ear, projecting music around you with the organic spaciousness of an acoustically treated listening room. Bass carries physical weight, and instruments occupy real positions within a vivid, three-dimensional stage. The result is not just something you hear, it’s something you inhabit’, the manufacturer adds.

RINARO and Meze have collaborated before — the two brands previously worked together on the Romanian manufacturer’s Elite, Liric, and Empyrean headphone models.

About RINARO’s technologies in headphones

The design of the MZ5 HΩ driver allows it to operate in a high-voltage, low-current mode, unlike other solutions based on the same principles.

Less current means less heat and stress on the diaphragm, allowing ARTA to deliver ultra-low distortion.

The RINARO diaphragm, made of a ‘low-mass composite material’, is also expected to resist thermal drift and contribute to the operational stability of the ARTA headphones.

About the design of the ARTA headphones

The earcups of the ARTA headphones are covered with specially designed, angled acoustic plates that physically protect the driver while preserving sound quality.

The skeletal frame of the headphones is made of metal and leather, while the headband is crafted from carbon fiber. The ARTA headphones are hand-assembled at Meze’s production facility in Romania and weigh 495 grams. They are priced at $6,000.

About RINARO ISODYNAMICS

Founded in Ukraine, Rinaro Isodynamics positions itself as a pioneer in innovative sound engineering. The company designs and manufactures audio technologies, including sound systems and headphones. One of their most famous headphone models is Empyrean, created in collaboration with the Romanian brand Meze Audio.

Since 2023, RINARO has also been collaborating with Japanese toy manufacturer MEDICOM TOY — together, they developed the BE@RBRICK AUDIO 400% portable Bluetooth speaker.

‘This is a new page in the history of BE@RBRICK’: How a Ukrainian company together with MEDICOM TOY created an audio speaker

‘We believe that people should be able to adapt their music to their lifestyle and passions without losing sound quality. Our goal is to give people the tools to create a unique listening environment for music that evokes emotion and reflects the way they live​​’, Pavlo Shymanovych, founder of the company, says.

Work on the documentary has been underway since 2021 as a co-production between Ukraine and Germany. It was filmed by Tabor Production in collaboration with Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk.

The main characters of ‘Silent Flood’ are members of a closed religious community that settled on the banks of the Dniester, where the front lines of World War I and World War II once ran.

This closed community lives by their own, strict rules and is detached from the outside world. For example, they are forbidden to use electricity or modern medicine, forbidden to marry outside the community, and forbidden to attend a regular school or join the army. However, their peaceful way of life is gradually being disrupted by recurring floods and the Russian-Ukrainian war.

‘When a devastating flood comes under the flag of the Russian army, the community unites, losing their comfort. Despite the lack of information due to the absence of electricity, the peasants gradually begin to go against their own rules, connecting to the outside world to confront the enemy’, the description reads.

The cinematographers on ‘Silent Flood’ were Ivan Morarash, Oleksandr Korotun, Viacheslav Tsvietkov, and the director himself.

At IDFA in Amsterdam, ‘Silent Flood’ won the award for Best Cinematography, while at the Krakow Film Festival it received the award for Director of a Film of High Artistic Merit. The film had its Ukrainian premiere at Docudays UA.

The collection’s personal memory aspect was inspired by designer Iryna Vasylevska’s family archive, including photographs of her parents, childhood belongings, and objects that later became personal artifacts.

The brand was also inspired by the aesthetics of older men’s wardrobes — their color combinations and garments worn for years ‘without a conscious desire to follow fashion’.

Beyond personal memory, the brand explores collective memory, its fragility, and transformation:

‘In this context, the question of how to preserve the memory of people, events, and the experiences we are going through right now — things that may later change, fade, or disappear, but must not be forgotten — becomes especially important’, SYNDICATE explains.

The brand also explored the interaction of the past and the present through the techniques and materials used. According to the SYNDICATE team, traditional fabric-processing methods were combined with modern technologies, while handcraft was paired with digital processes.

The brand used indigo dyeing, heat transfer, and experimental materials, as well as physical imprints of real flowers, which were ‘digitized, transformed, and brought back onto the fabric in a new form’.

Another theme explored in the new collection is the boundary between the real and the artificial. For example, SYNDICATE turned real objects into prints. The brand also works with the imagery of water:

‘…The sea from childhood memories, rain, a river. It has no single literal interpretation: water simultaneously preserves traces, distorts them, washes them away, and transforms them’.

About the show and performance during UFW

The show’s venue was styled to resemble Asian streets, inspired by Vasylevska’s travels to Japan and other countries across Asia.

The show concluded with a performance featuring water-soluble fabric, during which water ‘washed away’ the top layer of the models’ looks.

It is currently unknown when the items from the new SYNDICATE collection will go on sale.

Exclusively for DTF Magazine, Maryan spoke about the album and described each of its tracks

All the compositions are dedicated to a particular physical phenomenon or element: light, earth, fire, time, movement, darkness, wind, and water. In this way, the musician conveys his own perception of how ‘energy transforms into matter and, through music, is endowed with emotions’.

‘These elements, phenomena, and forces are what help me return to myself when I lose touch with myself’, Karpinskyi explains.

The trio chose to record the hour-long release without pauses in order to create the feeling of a live concert. The recording is accompanied by a video by director and photographer Lika Miroshnychenko, which was also shot in a single take.

‘We played all the compositions back to back, with all the imperfections and unpolished moments. It seems to me that improvisational jazz art should be just like that — real and very sincere’, the musician adds.

Maryan Karpinskyi Experience — about the tracks from ‘Tut’

‘Svitlo’ (Light)

Life as theater: its nature is multifaceted and open to interpretation, but unmistakably gorgeous.

‘Zemlia’ (Earth)

An embodiment of resilience: strong, proud, uncompromising. A dedication to our Ukrainian land.

‘Vohon’ (Fire)

A symbol of coziness.

At first glance, it may seem chaotic and uncontrollable, yet at the same time, it is deeply sensitive and structured.

‘Chas’ (Time)

Its passage is one way of imagining infinity. Our perception of time is highly relative and differs from one person to another, but it continues endlessly.

‘Rukh’ (Movement)

An essential part of the universe and our lives in all their forms.

‘Temriava’ (Darkness)

Mysterious, cautious, eerie, yet calm, thoughtful, and simple. Even in complete darkness, there is light — you just need to see it.

‘Viter’ (Wind)

A catalyst for change: stern, cold, and uncompromising.

‘Voda’ (Water)

A current that flows through the earth with the passage of time, moving through light and darkness, taming the fire fanned by the wind, reminds us of all the forms of life.

About Maryan Karpinskyi Experience

The project was founded in 2023 ‘as a response to the inner need to create during the war in Ukraine’. According to Maryan, the group’s ‘Drohobych fusion’ combines meditativeness and fluidity with live energy and tension — ‘it is music of freedom, trust, and profound meaning’.

In 2024, the band, then a quintet (Stanislav Diachenko, Mykhailo Halaktyonov, Dmytro Kryshtal, Denys Arkharov, and Maryan Karpinskyi), recorded and released their debut album ‘Zolotyi Karp’.

In 2025, Maryan Karpinskyi Experience began developing a trio format alongside the quintet and released the single ‘Svitlo’. In addition to Maryan Karpinskyi, the trio consists of drummer Oleksandr Yavdyk and bassist Anna Ryzhova.

The musicians also participate in projects such as Maria Lui, Yevhenii Dubovyk Project, YUVI, Tónka, Yarima, Carlo Muscat, and the Yevhen Puhachov quintet.

About the story behind the music video

The video was initiated by Shevchenko himself. According to the producer, he chose the track and proposed the idea for its visualisation: ‘There were no long discussions or choices between several tracks. On the contrary, I was curious to see what he heard in it and how he envisioned it visually’.

‘The idea for the video came to me within the first few minutes of listening. ‘KEEP BREATHING’ has this distinctive, soft, pulsating rhythm that seems to immerse you deeper and deeper into the darkness. That was the feeling I wanted to recreate — this state of being both frightening and incredibly alluring at the same time’, NEONKNIGHT adds.

The music video for ‘KEEP BREATHING’ comes out six years after Vera Logdanidi’s first music video for the track ‘VPlanet’. The electronic producer explains that she does not aim to regularly create visuals for her work:

‘For me, this isn’t something mandatory that has to accompany every release. I wanted it to happen naturally — when there’s an idea, the right person, and the desire to bring it to life’.

About the main character and aesthetics

The video’s main character is a woman whom the director compares to Marla from ‘Fight Club’: ‘Open, uninhibited, somewhat vulgar and provocative, yet magnetic at the same time, she draws the viewer deeper and deeper into the video’s underground world at night’.

The space of the Rhythm Büro party, particularly the lighting, movement, and atmosphere of the event, also became part of the work's visual language. As NEONKNIGHT explains, he had wanted to work with the collective for a long time because he shares their approach:

‘The lighting, visuals, locations — everything is always done with taste and a subtle sense of aesthetics. So when Vera released the album, I immediately knew I wanted to make a music video for her. We found common ground very quickly and agreed on the mood the work should have, and the rest, as they say, is history’.

Vera Logdanidi herself also became a heroine of ‘KEEP BREATHING’: the producer appears in the final frame behind the decks — it is with this shot that the video ‘returns from the character to the track’s creator’.

The release of ‘KEEP BREATHING’ marks a ‘new chapter’ in the album’s story: Rhythm Büro will later release a remix album, ‘All That We Lose And All We Fight For’, while the names of the featured artists and the release date will be announced later. Read more about Vera Logdanidi’s debut album, ‘To All That We Lose And All We Fight For’, in our article.

The winners in each category will be selected by an international jury, including Skateistan co-founder Oliver Percovich, skateboarder Alex Corporan, Finnish skateboarder and documentary filmmaker Arno Saarni, Burton Europe Marketing Director Lina Adams, and director Coan ‘Buddy’ Nichols.

‘The festival honors films that explore the spirit of freedom, the strength of community, and creative expression through street culture. Being selected for the category is an important step that brings the story of skateboarding in Okhtyrka and local initiatives to a new international level’, Street Cultures Okhtyrka says.

Suomifornia will take place in Helsinki on October 1 and 2, 2026.

About ‘Pryzemlennia’

The film is dedicated to the local street community that continues to develop street culture in the frontline city, as well as to the construction and development of the Krytka skatepark.

In a comment to DTF Magazine, Pavlo Ihnatchenko from Street Cultures Okhtyrka says that the film ‘Pryzemlennia’ is ‘an attempt to capture the moment when a community is not just surviving, but beginning to act’. Work on the film lasted six months.

The film also aims to convey that ‘street culture is not just about tricks or hanging out, but a powerful tool for resistance and unity’.

According to Pavlo, ‘Pryzemlennia’ highlights how the creation of the skatepark, driven by local community members and volunteers, influenced social dynamics in Okhtyrka and ‘brought back a feeling of community and belonging in a town long left in the shadows’.

The film’s title refers to landing after a skateboarding trick — a moment when you need to ‘stabilize and regain balance, even when everything around you is still unsteady’. Read more about ‘Pryzemlennia’ in our article.

The mural will be thematically divided into three sections: ‘Ukraine Yesterday: The Origins of Ukrainian Statehood’, ‘Ukraine Today: A Country Speaking in Its Own Voice’, and ‘Ukraine Tomorrow: The Future We Paint Together’. Each participant can create a sketch for only one of the three sections. A jury will select the works to be included in the future mural.

The best designs will be awarded prizes. First place comes with a reward of 100,000 UAH, second place — 50,000 UAH, and third place — 25,000 UAH. Additionally, a prize will be awarded for the best 3D drawing concept on a free theme on the road surface, amounting to 150,000 UAH.

All necessary working materials, as well as meals and accommodation for participants, are provided by the organizers.

Applications are open until September 5. Organizers ask applicants to include a portfolio and a sketch for the mural with their submissions. The selection results will be announced on September 7. You can apply to participate here.

About the album

Over the course of the three-day camp, service members of units within the Third Army Corps ‘turned their own wartime experiences into part of contemporary Ukrainian military culture’. The LP features nine tracks, each telling a distinct story.

The album title ‘1654’ refers to the founding year of Kharkiv — the Camp3 organizers call it an important city not only for the project's participants but also for the broader Ukrainian military context.

In the rap lyrics, the soldiers explore themes of fear, loss, brotherhood, expectations, rage, love, memory, and life between combat missions.

‘For me, the microphone and the studio are first and foremost a way to reset and an opportunity to put into words what you feel between combat missions. There are no fictional stories here — we write about what we saw, what we went through, about our brothers-in-arms, and about what remains inside’, one of the camp participants with the call sign ‘Druh Eminem’ shares.

The album was released on the AB3.MUSIC label.

A four-part documentary project was also released alongside the album. It documents the entire recording process of ‘1654’ and the interactions between the soldiers and the musicians and sound producers. The first episode is already available to watch on the YouTube channel of the 3rd Army Corps.

About Camp3

The music-and-military camp was first held in 2025. The three-day intensive is designed to give service members an opportunity to express their wartime experiences through music.

At the same time, while working on the project, the organizers wanted to emphasize the need to unite civilian and military societies. Ukrainian musicians and sound producers are invited to curate the album recordings.

‘This is the first music intensive in history created by soldiers for soldiers, directly in the area of combat missions. Not just in Ukraine, but in the world. We had the opportunity to capture not only the soldiers’ voices, but also their thoughts and emotions — something that may eventually become the folklore of this war. Just as Cossack songs and songs from the era of the Ukrainian War of Independence resonate with us today’, the camp’s founder and service member Oleh Hrabar says.

About the first Camp3 release

The camp’s first collaborative release was the self-titled ‘Camp3’ EP. In 2025, it was recorded by military artists from the Third Assault Brigade together with Ukrainian musicians GRABAR, Badwor7h, Yuvi, Hyphen Dash, Zhenia Kurhan, and Sasha Chemerov.

The intensive brought together both service members with a musical background and those who were self-taught or wanted to learn how to make music.

Read more about the release in our article.

‘Black Sunflowers’ tells the story of Ukrainian youth ‘balancing between the front line and civilian life’.

The film follows the story of Ivan, a military driver who organizes street races when he is off duty; a young combat veteran with an amputation who ‘finds a sense of freedom at raves despite his running blade’; and Nikoletta, a young woman who swapped nature photography for war photography.

‘The film embodies a youthful spirit as it shifts between eclectic settings, from an underground dance club to a frontline barracks to a countryside swimming hole. We get to experience this generation in all its complexity as people grapple with tragedy, duty, disillusionment, and yearning for a better future’, the festival’s website says.

Recalling his first visit to Ukraine, director James Marcus Haney says he was surprised by how much ‘normal life carried on despite the war’.

Among the producers of ‘Black Sunflowers’ are Ukrainians Yevhenii Zdorovylo and the husband-and-wife team Volodymyr and Anna Yatsenko (‘U Are the Universe’).

One of the executive producers is Sean Penn, who has supported Ukraine by covering the war through film projects. In 2023, the actor co-directed the documentary ‘Superpower’ with Aaron Kaufman about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In March 2026, Penn visited Kyiv instead of attending the Oscars ceremony.

About other Ukrainian films at TIFF

The festival’s short film program also includes the Ukrainian-Dutch film ‘Patronymic’. The autobiographical film by director Mariia Ponomariova explores the theme of cultural identity.

The Centerpiece section will also feature ‘The Betrayers’, directed by David Bezmozgis (‘Natasha’). Created as a co-production between Canada and Ukraine, the political thriller is based on Bezmozgis's novel of the same name. ‘The Betrayers’ follows Baruch, a former Soviet dissident and Israeli politician who, after the collapse of his political career, flees to the already annexed Crimea, where he encounters a former friend who once denounced him to the KGB.

The Toronto International Film Festival will run from August 10 to 20.

About the idea behind the space

According to Yevhen, the idea for Pop Up came about while looking for a venue for one of the artists’ concerts. When they couldn’t find a suitable space, they decided to create one specifically for the event ‘from scratch’.

‘Then the idea started to grow: first, we added another artist, then a second, a third. Eventually, it turned into a separate project — a temporary music venue, — Yevhen explains. — The temporary format also emerged naturally: there aren’t currently that many artists on the Ukrainian scene whose concerts we could use to fill a large number of dates in a venue like this’.

About the concept

The name Pop Up directly refers to the space’s concept. It was created as a place ‘you need to make time to visit’, as it has ‘a specific launch date and a predetermined ending’.

As part of the space's operations, a series of events is planned — one for each invited artist — which will not be repeated in the future.

‘With each event, Pop Up gets one evening closer to its end. If you miss it, you won’t have another chance to experience it’, Kibets explains the concept behind Pop Up.

The organizers are not yet disclosing the exact number of planned concerts, their dates, or the names of the artists.

At the same time, all events at Pop Up will be fully charitable, with the proceeds from each concert going towards the needs of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate.

Describing the lineup of artists for Pop Up, Yevhen says that the space will showcase a diverse range of musical genres.

‘We weren’t trying to put together just a lineup of big names — it was important to us that each concert fit organically into the concept of Pop Up’.

UPD [19.08.2026] The first artist to perform at the temporary Pop Up space will be Ship Her Son, a project by Anton Shyferson. The concert is dedicated to the first anniversary of his album ‘Soundtrack to the Daily Agenda’.

The planned tracklist will cover almost the entire Ship Her Son discography, as well as new music. Anton will be joined on stage by all the guests featured on ‘Soundtrack to the Daily’ Agenda: Palindrom, Anton Sliеpakov, Yevhen Tymchyk, Oleksandr Kuts, and Divuar.

Along with the announcement of the first concert, the Pop Up team also revealed the venue's location — the Collider art space.

You can buy tickets for the Ship Her Son and friends event via the link.

About the location

The team calls the search for the location the most difficult stage in the project's implementation. According to Yevhen, the venue had to match the industrial aesthetic they were looking for while also being functional.

‘First and foremost, the atmosphere was important to us. We wanted to find not a classic concert hall, but a more characteristic space with an industrial and factory aesthetic. At the same time, it had to have good acoustics, sufficient capacity, and the ability to host a concert for around 500 people’.

Kibets explains that the location is also intended to become part of a new concert experience for visitors.

‘We want people to come not just to listen to a concert, but to get new impressions from the place itself, the atmosphere, and the format’, he says.

The first concert at Pop Up will take place in late September, with the artists’ names set to be announced in the coming weeks. You can follow the venue’s announcements here.

In the track, Olena explores the theme of losing control and illustrates ‘chaotic movement in a space where old landmarks no longer exist and new ones have not yet appeared’. However, the artist suggests ‘letting go of the helm’ and taking a fresh look at a state that can become ‘the beginning of an inner rebirth’.

The song culminates in an improvised vocal solo, which is compared to the image of consciousness caught up in the current of change.

The track also features contributions from Daniil Zubkov (Lucas Bird), who worked on the guitar parts and arrangement, and Mykhailo Halaktionov, who recorded the drums.

Ahead of the album’s release, Olena Karas has prepared a visual trilogy, the first part of which is the music video for ‘vidpusty shturval’.

The video was directed by Lika Miroshnychenko. The choreography was created by Hala Piekha and performed by dancer Sasha Vakurov and Olena Karas herself.

About the ‘[metanoia]’ album

Olena Karas’s ‘[metanoia]’ is described as an ‘album-performance’ that forms ‘a cohesive statement about a person’s inner transformation’. In the new tracks, the artist explores the states people experience during moments of profound upheaval.

The singer will release two more main tracks from the album, completing the visual trilogy. The full release of ‘[metanoia]’ is scheduled for October 2026, after which Karas will present it as a multisensory theatrical performance in November.

About Zahedi’s installation and organ

The organ became the central element of the artist’s ‘Ouranophobia 47051’ installation for ‘Manifesta 16 Ruhr’. The instrument was made from the pipes of other, non-working organs collected from various European cities. A special blower supplies the organ with air.

‘Organ pipes are shaped around breath. They exist to speak and formed in a tradition of communal gatherings; of people coming together to be moved by something larger than themselves. That intention does not leave when the instrument is destroyed’, Zahedi explains.

‘Ouranophobia’ in the project’s title refers to the fear of the sky, while ‘47051’ is the postal code of Duisburg, where the installation is housed in a cultural centre.

About the sound work for the Pavilion of Culture

The artist was provided with pipes from the damaged Rieger-Kloss organ by the National House of Organ and Chamber Music. The pipes are planned to be returned to Kyiv in 2027.

‘This edition of ‘Manifesta’ is titled ‘This Is Not a Church’. It unfolds across The Ruhr, a post-industrial region still learning what community means after generations of loss. To bring these pipes here, from a city living through destruction to a city carrying its own long grief, is not a metaphor. It is literal’, Zahedi says.

The code 03127 in ‘Ouranophobia 03127’ refers to the postal code of the Pavilion of Culture, while the work itself was created ‘in response to the space of the Pavilion’. The sound within it is slowed down, features reverberation, and is combined into a sound composition that reproduces the artist's sound archive dedicated to grief.

Zahedi ‘contrasts’ the recorded sound of the new organ with amateur recordings of Kyiv’s Rieger-Kloss organ made before the fire, as well as with his previous works.

On August 20, Abbas Zahedi will speak with Michael Kurtz, creative mediator for ‘Manifesta 16 Ruhr’, both online and at the Pavilion of Culture. The event starts at 3:00 p.m.

The offline listening session for ‘Ouranophobia 03127’ will take place from 4:30 to 9:00 p.m. Admission is free.

In a comment to DTF Magazine, Anton Nazarko says that ‘XTO MY’ is, first and foremost, an emotionally personal track for them. In the single, the artists reflect on life and a person's place during war.

‘It’s filled with emotions tied to Kharkiv and the country, as well as how we experienced our surroundings at the time’, he adds.

About the collaboration with Kieron Pepper

According to Anton, his partnership with Pepper began with a chance meeting in May 2025 in Brighton, England, at The Great Escape festival. There, he told Kiron about his projects: TYSK, the Kharkiv Center of New Culture Some People and its community, and also sent him demos for the album ‘Kharkiv Worldwide’, which the band had only just begun working on at the time.

‘It was interesting for me to hear feedback from someone with that kind of experience, but I wasn’t really expecting anything in particular. A couple of weeks later, Kieron came back with a detailed musical breakdown of the material and asked for translations of the lyrics. He paid special attention to ‘XTO MY’. He said it was the strongest track on the album and offered to work on it together’, Anton recalls.

Nazarko describes the working process as ‘a ping-pong of emails with ideas’, in which Kieron shared his experience. Alongside his music career, he also mentors students at WaterBear, a music college in Brighton.

About the ‘Kharkiv Worldwide’ album

The release of TYSK’s second full-length album is scheduled for September 2026. Some of its tracks, including ‘SEEK’, ‘Vidverto’, and ‘XTO MY’, are already available on streaming platforms. The artists also plan to release another single ahead of the album.

Discussing ‘Kharkiv Worldwide’ conceptually, Anton and Alex explain that in it, they ‘transformed the atmosphere of Kharkiv over recent years into sound’.

About TYSK’s other releases

In March this year, the collective released the audiovisual work ‘Kharkiv Worldwide’. Directed by visual artist Kris Voitkiv and cinematographer Alex Babenko (‘2000 Meters to Andriivka’), the video explores the ‘emergence of a young underground scene’ in Kharkiv and the development of the community around the Some People Center of New Culture.

Read more about the concept of the Some People Center of New Culture in the DTF Magazine interview with Anton Nazarko, co-founder of the collective.

The lineup includes Anton Kramer, Alex Savage, Vera Logdanidi, MAAT b2b Manoua (live), CANTRUST, Borys, Bey o Bey, Sofiia Zoloto, JANE, Auua b2b Kvitka, Duni, Taqaddam, Lisovskyi b2b diskevich, Luschn, nizvidky, POTROX, Hanna Svirska (live), nikson<3, C0mpute3 (live), DIMA K b2b DeeAitch (live), WiELOROMAN, and BOH (live). It will also feature jam community adsr.live, duo D016, and bands hirsha versiia sebe, sportcafé, and Soniachni Kotyky.

In addition to the music programme, the organizers are preparing an art programme featuring Ukrainian artists, tattoo artists, decorators, and dancers. More details will be announced closer to the event.

Tickets for the autumn ÓPIK w/ Closer can be purchased here.

About previous ÓPIK w/ Closer events

They opened the festival season in 2026 with a large two-day event in April. Four stages hosted performances by 48 Ukrainian artists across four locations, each with its own distinct atmosphere. The festival focused on the multilayered and diverse nature of the local music scene.

We shared more details about the April ÓPIK w/ Closer in an article with the ÓPIK team.

Registration for Holzinger's Kyiv workshops is available via the link. The artist will be in Odesa on August 27–28 and in Lviv on August 29–30. KЇ PLATFORMA, the co-organizers of the Austrian performance artist’s visit, will post the upcoming event schedule and registration links on Instagram.

Who is Florentina Holzinger?

Austrian choreographer, director, and performance artist, one of the most influential figures in contemporary European performance art. She works at the intersection of dance, theatre, circus, opera, and visual art. The artist’s method, the Holzinger system, is built on discipline, risk, and mutual trust among the performers.

In 2026, Florentina represents Austria at the 61st Venice Biennale with ‘SEAWORLD VENICE’ — an exploration of the human body in a changing aquatic landscape, at the intersection of nature and technology.

At the entrance of the pavilion, a bell was placed as a symbol of something sacred and at the same time as a warning of a catastrophe. The bell is rung three times a day, with a woman’s body used instead of a clapper.

The pavilion is accompanied by a cube-shaped aquarium in which performers spend several hours at a time. The tank is filled with water produced by purifying the excrement of Biennale visitors.

The pavilion itself was flooded with water, and periodically one of the performers rides a jet ski inside while talking about the ecological disaster caused by overtourism in Venice.

In the campaign, Inde and Malcolm use Gap denim ‘as a canvas for their creativity and personal style’.

In the video, the singer and actress, set against a blank white backdrop, showcase various looks featuring pieces from the brand. The video is soundtracked by a new version of Robyn’s single ‘Dancing on My Own’, performed by Malcolm himself.

‘I’ve always been drawn to making things my own — whether that’s through music, style, or the way I express myself,’ said Todd. ‘Being able to reinterpret an iconic song like ‘Dancing on My Own’ was such a special experience. I like to trust my instincts and not overthink things.’

The brand explains the campaign’s idea as follows: ‘‘Denim on Your Own’ reflects how Gap’s timeless essentials become part of the everyday lives of artists as they create, perform, and connect with their audiences’.

At the same time, describing the collaboration with Navarrette and Todd, Gap notes that it ‘continues to serve as a platform for the next generation of creative voices, championing emerging artists who are shaping culture through music, art, and self-expression’.

Other works by Tanu Muiño

In spring 2025, singer Sevdaliza released a new music video for her track ‘HEROINA’, created by a Ukrainian-Georgian team led by director Tanu Muiño.

In ‘HEROINA’, the artist ‘asserts her corporeality not in the context of objectification, but as an expression of freedom and strength’. She also expresses support, particularly for women, the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, and refugees. In fact, not only excerpts from the song but also specific visuals in the video allude to the themes of immigration and refuge.

We shared more details about the work and the visuals from the music video in our article with ‘HEROINA’ creative director Marharyta Shekel.

The events of ‘Demons’ take place shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The protagonist, Nina, played by Ruslana Pysanka, shelters a Russian drifter who calls himself a writer.

‘Hoping to build a new life with him, she gradually discovers his true nature as the mystical landscapes of Ukraine’s Poltava Region where witches live alongside humans and the dead speak to the living begin to reveal his secrets’, the description reads.

The role of Nina was the final one in Ruslana Pysanka’s career; in July 2022, near the end of filming, she passed away at the age of 56. According to the production team, approximately 90% of her scenes had been shot by then, requiring some adjustments to the finale to preserve the director’s vision and honor her memory.

Vorozhbyt says that the story unfolds on three interconnected levels: ‘The first is the relationship between a man and a woman within a traditional society. The second is socio-political, where this relationship becomes a metaphor for the relationship between Russia and Ukraine. The third is the mystical, exploring the connection between the living, the dead, and the otherworld’.

What other Ukrainian films will be shown in Locarno

In addition to ‘Demons’, two other Ukrainian films will compete in different sections of the 2026 Locarno Film Festival.

Isabelle Stead's ‘I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming’ will be presented in the international competition, while Hlib Feldman's ‘Another Day in the Metal Box’ will be shown in the short film section. We wrote more about both films in our article.

According to the producer, he began working on the music after ‘the familiar conditions of life changed’. The album’s title refers to ‘a change in the basic settings through which a person perceives the world’.

Musically, the album, as described, ‘leans toward a UK sound with an emphasis on grooves and rhythms’, while retaining the sonic texture and melodic quality that have already become signature elements of the project.

Walakos also used samples from collaborative works with colleagues in the album’s singles.

In the track ‘<<RWD’, there are samples from jam sessions with Mykyta Troiepоlskyi (mutedbirds), Sokolov’s friend, which the producer himself describes as ‘a reminder of life before all the changes’, while the track ‘Ray’ features guitar parts by Maksym Borovyk, Andrii’s fellow soldier.

The final mixing of ‘Baseline Distortion’ was handled by Dnipropop label sound producer Yurii Bulychev. The album cover features the painting LOST by artist Roksolana Deineha

About previous releases by Walakos

The eight-track ‘Interrupted’ was released in November 2024 and combines electronic music, IDM, and downtempo. On the album, the musician shares his ‘personal experience of the inevitability of change, loss, and unexpected breakthroughs’.

In 2023, Walakos released his second studio album, ‘Now We Have Pain’. We talked more about the release here.

At the same time, PUMA says it is already working to restore its supply chains and will provide updates on its next steps.

‘Our top priority is to restore our ability to meet our partners’ needs and minimize the impact of this incident on our business’, the company added.

Background

On the night of August 5, Russia completely destroyed the warehouses of PUMA Ukraine and INTERTOP, which represents brands including The North Face, Vans, and Napapijri in Ukraine. The warehouses were located at the DENKA LOGISTICS distribution center in the village of Chaiky, near Kyiv. No employees from either company were injured.

PUMA clarified that ‘in the coming weeks and, likely, months, there may be a shortage of certain PUMA goods in Ukraine’, but they are already working on restoring supplies.

INTERTOP also said that DENKA LOGISTICS had been one of the company’s key logistics facilities, operating without interruption since 2009.

‘The scale of the destruction is enormous. Along with the warehouse, we lost a significant portion of our inventory, logistics infrastructure, and equipment... We are currently assessing the consequences of the attack and reorganizing all of our operations’, the company said.

The attack also damaged warehouses and logistics centers of Rozetka, Nova Poshta, Silpo, Epicentr, NOVUS, LIQUI MOLY Ukraine, Fozzy Group, and Toyota Ukraine.

As a result of the attack, 17 people were killed, including one person in Kyiv and 14 in the Kyiv region. At least 44 other people were injured.

PUMA clarified that ‘in the coming weeks and, likely, months, there may be a shortage of certain PUMA products in Ukraine’, but they are already working on restoring supplies.

At the same time, INTERTOP stated that DENKA LOGISTICS was one of the company's key logistics facilities, having operated seamlessly since 2009.

‘The scale of the destruction is enormous. Along with the warehouse, we lost a significant portion of our inventory, logistics infrastructure, and equipment... We are currently assessing the consequences of the attack and reorganizing all of our operations’, the company said.

Read more about the consequences of the overnight Russian attack on Kyiv on August 5

On the night of August 5, according to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kyiv and the region were attacked by 24 ballistic missiles, 4 Zircon/Oniks-type missiles, and another 115 drones, a significant number of which were jet-powered.

As of 10 a.m., Zelenskyy also reported that 17 people were killed, including one person in Kyiv and 14 in Kyiv Oblast. At least 44 other people were injured.

The overnight attack also damaged warehouses and logistics centers operated by:

— Rozetka
— Nova Poshta
— Silpo
— Epicentr
— NOVUS
— LIQUI MOLY Ukraine
— Fozzy Group

In the collaboration, the sling bag retains the key features of the classic Arakava model — an internal organization system and two mesh pockets inside, two mesh pockets on the outside, a Velcro panel, and attachment loops for straps at the bottom of the bag.

The special version was equipped with an external tourniquet holder and a MARCH algorithm for assessing the condition of a casualty printed on the inside of the bag.

‘Carrying a tourniquet and gloves, attending tactical medicine and first-aid courses, being aware of constant risks and being prepared to respond to them — all of these are our basic needs and responsibilities in the realities of war’, keep comments.

The kit includes a pouch with three pairs of disposable gloves that can be attached to the outside of the bag, stickers, and a Tactical Medicine North patch.

The model is available in two versions: a black one made of Cordura and a blue-and-yellow one made of nylon. They are available on the keep website for UAH 5,000 and UAH 4,500, respectively. Part of the proceeds will be used to provide training for medics in Ukraine’s Defense Forces.

About keep’s other collections

In June 2026, the brand began selling items recovered from the debris cleanup of the keep office. On June 2, as a result of a massive missile attack on Kyiv, the brand's office, warehouse facilities, studio, and part of its production were destroyed.

The founder of keep spoke in more detail about the destruction of the office and plans for the brand’s future in our article.

The keep team says they intentionally did not clean the items — they are being sold in the condition they were pulled from the rubble. The items may have signs of damage and a smoky smell, but will be wearable after washing.

Laptop sleeves, bag and eyewear straps, backpacks, tote bags, and other surviving accessories of the brand are currently available on the website.

About ‘Man with a Movie Camera’

The 1929 documentary is a chronicle of a single day in the life of three major cities — Odesa, Kharkiv, and Kyiv — during the NEP era.

The film was shot without a clear script, lines, or intertitles with the aim of developing its own cinematic language, separated from the language of theater and literature.

‘This experimental work aims to create a truly international, universal language of cinema based on its complete separation from the language of theatre and literature’, Vertov wrote about the film.

The Dovzhenko Centre adds that, thanks to its cinematographic and editing techniques, ‘Man with a Movie Camera’ became a ‘methodological guide to filmmaking for the next generation of directors’.

About the other films on the list

In addition to Vertov’s film, the list includes documentaries about skateboarders from the American Rust Belt, high school basketball players from Chicago, New York drag queens, Kentucky coal miners, and an actor who wants to befriend a bear.

At the same time, according to The Hollywood Reporter, what makes the documentaries on the list outstanding is not who or what they are about, but how they were made.

Fifth on the list is the 1994 film ‘Hoop Dreams’. Directed by Steve James, the film follows two African-American high school students from Chicago — William Gates and Arthur Agee — who dream of becoming professional basketball players.

Through their story, the director raises questions of racial and class inequality in America at the time, which ‘still haven't begun to be resolved in sports even over 30 years after the film's release’.

Fourth on the list is the 2000 film ‘The Gleaners and I’ by French director Agnès Varda. She explores the culture of gleaning — collecting still-edible food, including grains left in fields after harvests and food that farmers and vendors would otherwise leave to spoil.

Later, the director expands the theme to include people who collect food from dumpsters, recyclers, squatters, and homeless people.

Third on the list is the 1985 film ‘Shoah’ by French director Claude Lanzmann. The film, which runs for more than nine hours, tells the story of the Holocaust through testimonies from Jewish survivors of concentration camps, as well as accounts from Nazis recorded with a hidden camera.

‘Beyond its unprecedented value as a testimony to atrocities, survival, and resistance, this film is also an outstanding artistic achievement. It uniquely tells the story of the past through the lens of the present, deliberately rejecting archival footage to focus on the living traces of industrialized death’, the description reads.

The second-best documentary on the list is the 1983 concert film ‘Stop Making Sense’ by the band Talking Heads. The film was added to the National Film Registry of the US Library of Congress in 2021 in recognition of its cultural and historical heritage.

The concert was filmed by Jonathan Demme (‘The Silence of the Lambs’, ‘Philadelphia’), who also worked on Justin Timberlake and the Tennessee Kids’ concert film and directed music videos for Neil Young, New Order, and Bruce Springsteen.

In 2023, A24 released a restored version of the film to mark its 40th anniversary. Read more about it here.

The best documentary film according to The Hollywood Reporter is the 1975 film ‘Grey Gardens’ by directors Albert and David Maysles. The ‘intimate documentary portrait’ tells the story of the lives of ‘high-society recluses’ — Edith ‘Big Edie’ Beale and her daughter, known as Little Edie — the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

‘They live in poverty and squalor in a dilapidated estate in East Hampton, overrun with cats, raccoons, and fleas. Some critics initially branded the film as exploitative, accusing it of grotesquely portraying the chaotic and codependent relationship between mother and daughter’, the description reads.

You can read the full list of The Hollywood Reporter’s 25 best documentary films on the publication’s website

In a comment to DTF Magazine, the ‘Through Her Eyes’ team said the idea for the photo book originated from the 2024 exhibition of the same name, which was also presented in New York in spring 2026.

The book became an extension of the exhibition and a tool for engaging in dialogue with American audiences. ‘...Later, the idea emerged to transform it into a photo book — an object that could be passed from hand to hand and gifted to American politicians, journalists, influencers, and partners. The book became a continuation of the exhibition and a way to start a conversation through human stories and documentary evidence of the war, without pushing the viewer away, but rather inviting them into a dialogue’, the team says.

‘Through Her Eyes’ consists of 176 pages and 76 documentary, portrait, and artistic photographs, complemented by captions in Ukrainian and English. The authors include Dariia Sviertilova, Nastia Verbova, Liza Bukreieva, Mariia Taran, Veronika Mushtai, and Kseniia Tomchyk.

For the publisher of the photo book, Olha Sunden, it was important that all the female photographers documented the events in their own way — this makes it possible to form a ‘cohesive narrative of how the war changes people, cities, and the country’.

The team chose to focus specifically on women's perspectives in both the book and the exhibition in order to offer ‘a different lens’ through which to talk about the war. The team says that the shots from ‘Through Her Eyes’ document not only events, but also details that often go unnoticed — human relationships, care, daily life, and moments of hope and inner strength.

‘The photographers selected images that hold stories and moments of personal significance for each of them. The book includes photographs that help capture the experience of the war and show people's lives within it — their meetings, work, daily routine, moments of joy and loss. At the same time, the authors seek to preserve images that are taking on new meaning today as the people and places depicted in them continue to change’.

‘Through Her Eyes’ is now available at bookstores across Ukraine, including MEGOGO Books, priced at UAH 2,000.

The protagonist of ‘Dnipro, The Plunging Shore’ is Ukrainian stylist and art director Yevheniia Skvarska, who is originally from Kyiv.

During the summers of 2023 and 2024, she and documentary photographer Kalpesh Lathigra travelled 2,200 kilometres along the course of Ukraine's longest river. Throughout the journey, she introduced Lathigra to the places of her childhood, and the photographs from the trips were included in the photo zine.

According to Skvarska, the need to document life along the river emerged after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, particularly following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in 2023. Rather than focusing on the devastation, however, the project set out to capture what its creators describe as ‘the soul of the country’.

‘This story is made up of everyday scenes, moments of joy, and families swimming in the Dnipro in summer — continuing to live and resist even during the war’, Skvarska explains.

The 38 photographs featured in ‘Dnipro, The Plunging Shore’ were shot on large-format film without any predetermined theme or goal. They were selected and edited by the curator of the Fashion Image Master's program at Central Saint Martins, where Skvarska began working on the project while still a student.

The photo zine is also complemented by the documentary project ‘Dnipro Fotostudiia’, dedicated to the Ukrainian community in London, which was realized there over the course of a single weekend.

‘Dnipro, The Plunging Shore’ was published in an edition of 450 copies and is available for purchase at select bookstores and on the Officialzine website.

About the ‘Unofficial’ series

The idea for ‘Unofficial’ originated from McLaughlin during conversations about authenticity. In the series, he focuses on lesser-known places ‘that the world rarely pays attention to’ and that are not cultural centers in the classical sense. In the artist's view, ‘the more unexpected the place, the better’.

By documenting a specific place, the series allows artists who ‘come from there’ to tell its story from their own perspective.

Ben also decided not to limit himself to a single publication format; it will change depending on the specific issue in the series. The team plans to release two works per year, and work on the next two is already underway.

The festival team says they decided to skip the indoor hangar stage this year after it ‘didn’t quite connect’ with attendees at the last ICKPA.

Instead, both stages at ICKPA 2026 — the new SHEVCHENKO Stage, located beside the Taras Shevchenko monument, and the HOTHOUSE Stage — will be open-air venues. There will be no ‘main stage’ this year: both spots share the same musical vision, differing only in size.

‘SHEVCHENKO Stage is an open-air environment delivering an adventurous, offbeat sound in an immersive 360-degree setup, whereas HOTHOUSE Stage provides a more intimate, tactile atmosphere for deeper, unpredictable soundscapes’, the festival team explains.

About the stage design

The visual identity of ICKPA is built around a collaboration between the festival organizers and the lighting design studio Raw Fusion. Sound merges with specialized industrial textiles and heavy structural components.

The use of metal mesh, technical fabrics, and plastic will create unconventional forms and ever-changing light reflections, continuously reshaping visitors' perception of the space. Freely rotating suspended elements will further enhance the environment with a sense of organic movement and physical presence, making the festival grounds feel more dynamic, immersive, and tactile.

One of the visual concept's central features will be a smoking-trap installation, where smoke, cool LED lighting, and PVC surfaces operate in sync as a single integrated system.

Beyond its dance floors, ICKPA will feature a range of non-musical spaces, including a public discussion area hosting the State of Exceptions: Emergency Solidarities panel, the GARAGE food court, an interactive installation by AIDX10, a dedicated community space curated by the 2nd Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine ‘Khartiia’, and a site-specific artwork by Vlad Plisetskyi.

About the lineup

Several international artists will be making their Ukrainian debut at ICKPA, including Konduku (Germany), DJ Rino(Belgium), and Supergloss (Germany).

Meanwhile, Nene H (Germany), Andrew James Gustav (Germany), and Yazzus (UK) will be returning to the Ukrainian stage.

Among the Ukrainian artists on this year's lineup are Amir, Oleh, Anastasiia Slutska, ezzeo, Gapon, Kirill Nilsson, tofudj, Klmn, Dmytro Sokolovski, Loginova, Luschn, Duni, Sasha Tessio, Shjva, Underdog, Diskevich, Yan Dobro, Zitto, and 98 Dots.

About ІСКРА

ICKPA was founded by a Ukrainian team in collaboration with the team behind Georgia's Bassiani club. The festival's first two-day edition took place in June 2021 on the grounds of the Khvylia sanatorium outside Kyiv.

‘ICKPA isn’t a guest’: why is Bassiani organizing a new festival in Kyiv

In 2022, ICKPA was scheduled for July 1–3, but ultimately did not take place. Following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the ICKPA team organized events in Berlin, New York, and Prague, before returning to Kyiv in 2025 with their first festival in four years.

The team describes its decision to bring the festival back to Kyiv as ‘a political act’, driven by a desire to bring the international community together in the Ukrainian capital.

The lineup featured 34 artists, including British DJs Bruno Schmidt and Gwenan, Danish electronic musician Kasper Marott, as well as Amir, Sokolovsky, Cantrust, Monotronique, Oleh, Ochii, Hanna, Shjva, and DJ 69.

According to Moss-Bachrach, borscht is one of his favorite dishes. The actor also brought his daughters to the shoot to tell them about the origins of borscht.

‘It’s a dish that is really part of the fabric of Ukrainian culture. Every family makes it, and there’s many, many different iterations of it. Some have meat, some have beans, some have tomatoes. It’s a real staple of Eastern Europe and a real workhorse. Almost like the equivalent of an Italian marinara, where it becomes reflective of the different families in the different regions’, he tells Ayo.

The actor adds that his daughters were raised on this. Lidia Yemchuk made it every time the family visited her in Los Angeles.

What ‘The Bear’ taught the actors

According to Edebiri, the best thing she learned from her time on ‘The Bear’ was an omelet recipe she created with culinary producer Courtney Storer.

Moss-Bachrach also recalled a piece of advice Matty Matheson gave him on set: don’t stir the ingredients too often. ‘You don’t need to be constantly moving things around. Let them interact with the heat and let some time go by, move it around so their ‘friends’ can interact with the heat’.

You can find Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s borscht recipe on the NYT Cooking website.

About ‘The Bear’

All eight episodes of ‘The Bear’s’ fifth and final season were released on June 25. The events unfold after Carmen leaves the restaurant and Sydney becomes the chef.

In the fifth season, Jeremy Allen White returns as Carmy in ‘The Bear’. The main characters will face flooding, supplier rejections, limited finances, and the threat of the building being sold.

‘We got no fucking money. We barely have any fucking food. And we are understaffed. But we have each other. And we’ve got nothing left to lose’, Richie (Moss-Bachrach) tells the restaurant staff in the trailer.

Besides White, Ayo Edebiri, Ebon Moss-Bachrach (‘The Fantastic Four’), Lionel Boyce (‘Project Hail Mary’), Liza Colón-Zayas (‘Law & Order’), Abby Elliott (‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’), Matty Matheson, and Jamie Lee Curtis have returned to their roles.

In addition to the 11 international artists already announced, Brave! Factory 2026 will also feature performances by the Lithuanian duo DUST (Trippsy & Tumosa) (live), American artist J. Richards, and Romanian artist K not K (live).

Among the newly announced Ukrainian acts are Andrey Sirotkin (live), AVC (live), Bambu, Bogdan Zaiets (live), Borys, Igor Glushko, iO (Mulen) & Cheise, Lisovskyi, Nizhna (live), Ponura, Ready in LED (live), Roman K, Seba Korecky of NOTA CLÜB (live), Serge Jazzmate & Bèllis, Sheetel (live), Shults.Sashaa, SI Process (live), Thongvor (live), vesnavoseny (live), WiELOROMAN, and Yan Shypula (live).

The live program also includes performances by Kinnota, Blooms Corda, Sigmund Friends, and Tik Tu.

Second-release tickets are available via the link until 25 July, after which the festival will move to its third ticket release.

Closer has also announced the festival's epilogue, featuring performances by Germany's Acid Pauli and France's Viken Arman. However, the date and venue have yet to be announced.

About the art programme at Brave! Factory 2026

Beyond the music, Brave! Factory will host a separate art program curated by Oleksii Sai, best known for his Burning Man installations. Sai’s involvement marks a return to a venue-centric design philosophy for the festival.

Marking his curatorial debut, the artist will focus on media art, ‘bravery in its many forms, and the personal courage to try something new in public art’. According to the announcement, the team also plans to bring in international artists.

Original material [20.05.2026] Brave! Factory 2026 will take place on August 22–23, once again at the grounds of the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studio. Closer has announced the first wave of the lineup, featuring 11 international artists, with additional names to be revealed later

In August, the festival will host performances by Anna Haleta (Israel), Batu (UK), C.A.R. (UK) with a live set, DJ Masda (Japan), Heavenphetamine (Japan) live, Marco Shuttle (Italy), Mezerg (France) live, Ohm Hourani (Canada), Sweely (France), Unai Trotti (UK), and Wallace (UK).

Early Bird tickets are already sold out, and the second release is now available for purchase via the festival's Instagram.

The final day of filming took place at Closer. DTF Magazine is sharing exclusive behind-the-scenes photos from the set, provided by the film's production team

About the adaptation's plot

The events of ‘The City’ unfold a hundred years after the period depicted in the novel, in present-day Kyiv during the fourth year of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Stepan Radchenko is a 24-year-old man who arrives in the city after surviving captivity in southern Ukraine. In Kyiv, he undergoes a transformation from a disoriented newcomer to a successful urbanite.

‘Driven by a desire for belonging, he aims to put his past behind him. Gradually, he constructs a new version of himself — stylish, composed, and recognized on the city's electronic music scene. But can he face his pain and slay his internal demons?’, the synopsis reads.

Cast and crew of ‘The City’

The role of Stepan Radchenko is played by Maksym Riahin, a young actor from Kyiv Academic Drama and Comedy Theatre on the Left Bank of the Dnipro (‘Love and Flames’). Mariia Kovaliova (‘The Trojan Women’) from the Ivan Franko Theatre takes on the role of Zosia, with Yana Kolodiichuk of Lviv’s Lesia Ukrainka Theatre playing Nadiika, and Anastasiia Malakhova as Ryta.

The cast also features Akmal Hurezov (‘Lessons of Tolerance’), Yevheniia Nepytaliuk (‘Butterfly Vision’), and Maksim Panchenko (‘Lucky Girl’).

According to Riahin, while preparing for the role, he and Bytiutskyi attended electronic music parties, with Closer being the first venue they visited.

The film’s producing team includes Dmytro Sukhanov (‘My Thoughts Are Silent’) and Valeriia Sochyvets (‘La Palisiada’, ‘Blindfold’). Volodymyr Usyk (‘La Palisiada’) serves as director of photography, with Maksym Nimenko (‘Stop-Zemlia’, ‘Coffee with Cardamom’) as production designer.

Stanislav Bytiutskyi's ‘The City’ is scheduled for release in 2027.

Going further than anyone else, Marta Kostiuk (ranked No. 13 in the WTA) reached her first-ever Wimbledon semifinal, which was also her second straight Grand Slam semifinal. With this achievement, Kostiuk tied Svitolina’s record, who had earlier advanced to the last four at Wimbledon in both 2019 and 2023

Marta Kostiuk

In the first round, Kostiuk defeated Argentina's Nadia Podoroska 6–1, 6–2. It was the first time in her career that the Ukrainian dropped fewer than five games in a Wimbledon match.

In the second round, Marta faced ‘neutral’ player Anna Blinkova, who had eliminated Yuliia Starodubtseva in the opening round of Wimbledon. Kostiuk lost the first set in a tie-break, 6–7(5), but recovered to win the next two sets 6–3, 6–3.

In the third round, she defeated American Emma Navarro (No. 26) to reach the Wimbledon round of 16 for the first time in her career. The Ukrainian came through a three-set match 6–2, 4–6, 6–1. Kostiuk then advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6–4, 6–4 victory over another American, Ashlyn Krueger (No. 102).

The 2026 Wimbledon quarterfinal marked Kostiuk's third quarterfinal appearance at a Grand Slam tournament. For a place in her first Wimbledon semifinal, she faced Italy's Jasmine Paolini and secured a straight-sets victory, 6–3, 6–2.

The Ukrainian's Wimbledon campaign came to an end one step short of the final, as she lost to Czech player Linda Nosková in the semifinals, 4–6, 4–6.

Kostiuk achieved her best-ever result at the British Grand Slam, continuing her impressive season after reaching the Roland Garros semifinals in June.

Marta also entered the doubles competition. Joined by Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse, Kostiuk claimed an opening-round 6-3, 6-4 victory over the US-New Zealand pair of Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe.

The Ukrainian-Romanian duo defeated Indonesia’s Aldila Sutjiadi and Janice Tjen in the second round, 6–4, 7–6(10–8). But on the brink of reaching the round of 16, Marta pulled out of the doubles tournament, citing heat and feeling unwell, and noting she wanted to prioritize the singles draw.

Elina Svitolina

In the first round of the singles competition, Elina Svitolina (WTA No. 8) faced fellow Ukrainian Dariia Snihur (No. 77) in an all-Ukrainian derby. Svitolina lost the match 5-7, 2-6.

Ukraine's top-ranked player exited Wimbledon in the opening round for the first time since 2018. Prior to Marta Kostuuk’s semifinal run this year, Svitolina was the only Ukrainian woman to have reached the Wimbledon semifinals twice.

Dariia Snihur

Following her victory over Svitolina, Dariia Snihur (WTA No. 77) faced France’s Léolia Jeanjean (No. 132), defeating her in three sets, 6-4, 6-3.

In her first-ever appearance in the Wimbledon third round, Snihur lost to American Ashlyn Krueger (World No. 102), 3–6, 2–6.

Snihur did not compete in the doubles event.

Daiana Yastremska

On the opening day of the singles competition, Yastremska (World No. 67) defeated Japan's Aoi Ito (World No. 228) in a battle that lasted more than two hours. The Ukrainian won the opening set in a tie-break, 7–6(1), dropped the second 4–6, and then saved four match points before clinching the decider 7–5.

However, the Ukrainian bowed out of the singles draw in the second round, falling to Spain’s Bouzas Maneiro (No. 52) with a score of 3-6, 7-6(1), 2-6.

In the doubles draw, Daiana Yastremska teamed up with Anhelina Kalinina to reach the second round. The Ukrainian pair came from a set down to defeat Switzerland's Simona Waltert and Brazil's Laura Pigossi, 4–6, 6–1, 6–1. Their run ended in the second round, where they lost to Kazakhstan's Anna Danilina and Serbia's Aleksandra Krunić, 2–6, 6–4, 6–0.

Anhelina Kalinina

Anhelina Kalinina (WTA No. 66) was also eliminated in the opening round of the singles draw. In a match against Kamilla Rakhimova (No. 70) that lasted over two and a half hours, she fell 6-4, 4-6, 5-7.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian duo of Anhelina Kalinina and Daiana Yastremska managed to reach the second round of the doubles draw.

Oleksandra Oliinykova

Oleksandra Oliinykova (World No. 53) made her Wimbledon main-draw debut and was competing on grass for only the third time in her career. In the opening round, the Ukrainian was eliminated following a 0-6, 0-6 defeat to America’s McCartney Kessler (WTA No. 57).

Oliinykova also competed in the Wimbledon doubles draw. Teaming up with Mexico's Renata Zarazúa, she was beaten in the opening round by Liudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine and American Desirae Krawczyk, 1–6, 0–6.

Yuliia Starodubtseva

Yuliia Starodubtseva (WTA No. 55) also suffered her first-ever first-round defeat at Wimbledon. She fell to neutral player Anna Blinkova (No. 114) with a score of 7-6(3), 4-6, 1-6.

Starodubtseva continued her tournament run in the doubles draw. On July 2, during the opening stage of the doubles competition, she teamed up with America’s Peyton Stearns to defeat the duo of Isabelle Haverlag (Netherlands) and Panna Udvardy (Hungary) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

Starodubtseva’s doubles run came to an end in the second stage. Partnering with Peyton Stearns, she dropped the match 1-6, 4-6 to the American-Hungarian pairing of Asia Muhammad and Fanny Stollár.

Liudmyla Kichenok

She also took part in the doubles competitions, standing out as the only Ukrainian representative in the mixed doubles draw.

Following her victory in the all-Ukrainian derby over Oliinykova, Liudmyla Kichenok (doubles No. 39) teamed up with America’s Desirae Krawczyk to face the Chinese pairing of Xinyu Jiang and Yifan Xu, ultimately falling in straight sets.

Kichenok bowed out of the mixed doubles competition in the opening round, losing 7-5, 5-7, 2-6 to the pair of Australia's Ellen Perez and Portugal's Francisco Cabral. For this event, the Ukrainian teamed up with Dutch player David Pel.

Nadiia Kichenok

Nadiia Kichenok (doubles No. 64), who competed alongside Japan’s Makoto Ninomiya, lost to the American-Hungarian pair of Asia Muhammad and Fanny Stollár in the first round of the doubles draw, with a score of 5-7, 2-6.

Ukrainian players at the 2026 Junior Wimbledon Championships

Two Ukrainian players competed in the main draw of the 2026 Junior Wimbledon Championships: Polina Skliar and Sofiia Bielinska. A third Ukrainian, Antonina Sushkova, withdrew from the tournament before playing her opening match.

Fifteen-year-old Sofiia Bielinska lost to Austria’s Anna Pircher in the opening round of the girls’ singles event, 2–6, 7–5, 6–1. Polina Skliar, meanwhile, reached the semifinals on her Junior Wimbledon main-draw debut, recording the best result of her career.

On her way to the semifinals, the Ukrainian defeated neutral player Yekaterina Dotsenko, Jamaica's Alyssa James, Romania's Maia Ilinca Burcescu, and seventh seed neutral player Maria Makarova.

The Ukrainian’s run came to an end in the semifinals, where she was defeated 4-6, 6-2, 1-6 by ‘neutral’ Anna Pushkareva.