All articles
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The Tale of Ihor’s Campaign: an Epic Whose Original Was Lost to Fire in 1812
In 1185, Prince Ihor of Novhorod-Siverskyi was defeated and captured in battle against the Cuman-Polovtsian nomads. The Tale of Ihor's Campaign, an epic about this defeat, had its manuscript discovered in 1795 and published in 1800 — only for the original to be lost in a fire in 1812. This article sets out the content of the work, the long debate over whether it is authentic, how it has been read in Ukraine, and its Japanese translations.
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Type лютого and You’ll Get “a Lutheran” ── How to Use a Ukrainian Dictionary
Ukrainian dictionaries list words under their "base form" as headwords, and the online dictionaries do not correct an inflected form for you. Type in лютого and you land on an unrelated word. This article sets out the steps for getting back to the headword, how to read the abbreviations and stress marks on a headword line, and which free public dictionaries and Japanese-language dictionaries are available.
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Mavka of the Forest, Rusalka of the River, Domovyk of the Home: the Spirits of Ukrainian Folklore
Ukrainian folklore features many named spirits — the water spirit Rusalka, who lures young men by the riverbank, the forest spirit Mavka, the ghost of a young woman who lives in the woods, and Domovyk, who guards the household hearth, among others. Drawing on encyclopedia entries, this article sets out what each looks like, how these beliefs survived by overlapping with Christian holidays, the folklorists who recorded them, and the literary works that drew on them.
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Not Noodles but Porridge ── Ukraine’s Hrechka, the World’s Third-Largest Buckwheat Producer
The buckwheat groat called "hrechka" in Ukrainian is eaten as porridge, not made into noodles. This article lines up the ways of eating it that the encyclopedias give, the origin of a name linked to "Greek," and the production figures, year by year, that put Ukraine third in the world for four years running from 2021, according to FAO statistics.
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Becquerels, Sieverts, Per Hour and Per Year — the Units Behind Nuclear Plant News
The IAEA regularly states that radiation levels at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remain normal. This article sets out the difference between becquerels, grays, and sieverts, how per-hour and per-year figures relate to each other, the older units — curies and bers — that still appear in Ukrainian law, and how to tell what an IAEA statement is actually reporting and whose information it is based on.
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Ukraine’s Sunflower Oil: the Seeds Mostly Stay Home
Ukraine harvests more than 10 million tons of sunflower seeds a year, but only a small fraction is exported as raw seed — most is processed into oil and meal domestically before export. This article sets out the volumes of seed, oil, and exports from USDA estimates, Ukraine's share of world exports, and the export duty that has applied to seed since 1999.
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Generation, Transmission, Distribution, Retail: How Electricity Reaches Homes in Ukraine
Electricity in Ukraine reaches households through four kinds of companies: generation, transmission, distribution, and retail. The 2017 Law on the Electricity Market established this division, and trading on the new wholesale market began on July 1, 2019. This article sets out the roles of the state-owned Ukrenergo, the regional distribution companies, the retail suppliers that contract with households, and the regulator that sets tariffs.
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Ukraine’s 12-Year School System: The Final Three Years Begin in 2027
Ukrainian schooling runs 12 years — four years of primary education, five years of basic secondary education, and three years of profile-oriented secondary education — and all 12 years are compulsory. Children start school at age 6 in principle, and no later than age 7. However, the final three-year stage is scheduled to begin only in September 2027, so students graduating now finish school after 11 years. University entrance exams have also, since 2022, used the NMT in place of the ZNO required by law.
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4.32 Hryvnias per Kilowatt-Hour: Ukraine’s Household Electricity Price and Its Outage Schedules
The price Ukrainian households pay for electricity is not set by the market but by a Cabinet decision, and has stood at 4.32 hryvnias per kilowatt-hour since June 2024. This article sets out how state-owned power companies cover the gap, how the price has changed since 2021, the difference between hourly outage schedules and emergency outages, and where households find out the schedule.
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Before You Contract with a Ukrainian Engineer — Three Employment Frameworks, and Intellectual Property
When working with talent in Ukraine, what actually helps you decide is not nationality but what can be written into a contract. The three employment frameworks that coexist within Ukraine; who intellectual property defaults to if the contract is silent; the arrangements for uptime and communication that became necessary after the full-scale invasion; and the points that need an expert's confirmation on the Japan side. Eight items you can put in a contract.