All articles
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Up to 500,000 Hryvnias to Start a Business: Ukraine’s State Grant Program “єРобота”
Since July 2022, Ukraine's government has run "єРобота," a program of non-repayable grants for starting or expanding a business. In September 2026, the "microgrant," whose amount used to depend on the number of people hired, was reorganized into two tracks: starting a business and expanding one. This article covers the types and amounts of the grants, the employment and tax conditions, and the numbers so far.
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Three-Quarters of Surveyed Sites Have Barriers: Ukraine’s Barrier-Free Strategy
In April 2021, Ukraine's government adopted a "National Strategy for Creating a Barrier-Free Space" through 2030. It aims to remove barriers not only in buildings and transport but across six directions: information, digital access, social participation, education, and the economy. This article covers how the strategy is carried out, its 2025 revision, the government's monitoring figures, and the concerns raised by a UN committee.
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A Monastery That Began in a Cave in 1051: The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
The chronicle places, under the year 1051, the story of a monastery beginning in a small cave on a hill in Kyiv. This article traces its history in a timeline: the year it received the title "Lavra," the printing press of 1615, the fire of 1718, the reserve of 1926, and the destruction of the cathedral in 1941, laying out the years that encyclopedias give differently side by side.
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Treatment Costing ¥1 Million, Paying About ¥93,000: How Japan’s High-Cost Medical Expense Benefit Changed in August 2026
When the amount paid at hospitals and pharmacies in a month exceeds a set ceiling, health insurance pays the difference — this is the “high-cost medical expense benefit.” The ceiling was raised in August 2026, and a new “annual cap” now covers August through the following July. This article covers the ceiling amounts by bracket with a worked example, the repeat-month reduction from the fourth month, the My Number Health Insurance Card and Certificate of Eligibility for Limit Application, where to apply and the two-year deadline, and what is planned for August 2027.
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Hetman Mazepa’s 22 Years, and Genroku Japan
Ivan Mazepa, elected hetman in 1687, led the Ukrainian Cossack state for 22 years until 1709, making many donations to churches and schools. Over those same years, Japan moved from the Genroku era into Hoei. This article places his history on the same timeline as the Edict on Compassion for Living Things and the Ako incident, and also looks at whose word it was that called him a "traitor."
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From Blood Feud to Fines: Kyivan Rus’s Law Code, the Ruska Pravda
The Ruska Pravda, the compilation of Kyivan Rus law, has no surviving original; it is known through more than 100 manuscripts, the oldest dating to 1282. This article traces, through encyclopedias and critical editions, its development from a Short Redaction that permitted blood feud to a Long Redaction that replaced it with fines, the theories of its origin, the content of its articles, and its continued use after Kyivan Rus itself.
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Sixteen Articles That Bound the Hetman’s Power: Pylyp Orlyk’s “Constitution” of 1710
In April 1710, Cossacks who had left their homeland after their defeat at Poltava concluded an agreement with their new hetman in exile at Bender: a general council to meet three times a year, a separation of the treasury from the hetman's personal income, and elected offices. This article looks at the content of the document known in Ukraine as "Pylyp Orlyk's Constitution," the original found in 2008, and where the description "Europe's first constitution" comes from.
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You Can Join or Leave a Neighborhood Association Freely, but the Common-Area Fee Is Different: The Supreme Court Ruling and How Jichikai Work
Neighborhood associations (jichikai, chōnaikai) are organizations that local residents form voluntarily. A 2005 Supreme Court ruling held that a member of a prefectural public housing complex's neighborhood association can leave at any time, but that the obligation to pay the common-area fee for shared facilities remains. Based on the law and materials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) and local governments, this article covers the rules for “authorized area-based associations” that can become legal entities, how the relationship with garbage collection points differs by area, and figures on membership fees and membership rates.
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The Opera Where a Sultan Lets the Cossacks Go Home: Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube
Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube, a comic opera that premiered in St. Petersburg in 1863, tells the story of Cossacks driven from the Sich. It was composed by Semen Hulak-Artemovsky, a singer who sang the lead role himself. Drawing on encyclopedias and the theater's own materials, this article looks at who wrote the libretto, the claim that it was "the first Ukrainian opera," and how the story differs from history.
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Seven Amendment Laws, One Struck Down as Unconstitutional: Thirty Years of Ukraine’s Constitution
Ukraine's Constitution, adopted on June 28, 1996, was amended by seven laws through 2019. The 2004 amendment was struck down by the Constitutional Court in 2010 for a procedural violation, and parliament restored it in 2014. This article traces, through the text of the amendment laws, the rewriting of the judiciary chapter, the policy of joining the EU and NATO, and the provision that bans amendments under martial law.