Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture to help mobilized cultural workers obtain creative leave

Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture intends to assist mobilized cultural workers in obtaining creative leave to produce cultural content.

This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture Tetiana Berezhna at a roundtable dedicated to the results of “Tysyachevesna.” The event was organized by the NGO Detector Media.

According to Berezhna, the ministry is already in talks with the Ministry of Defense on the matter.

“We understand that a number of cultural workers have been mobilized, but nonetheless we are currently working with the Ministry of Defense. If these people want to return and create cultural content, we will be their advocates so that they receive a certain creative leave to fulfill that task. That is what we are doing. If, of course, they have such a desire and permission from the military unit where they serve,” Berezhna said.

Speaking about the general shortage of human capital in the cultural sector, the deputy prime minister described the situation as an opportunity for young people rather than a problem.

“I always think about countries like Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, where only a few million people live, while Ukraine has 30 million people. Surely we want to show that the cultural industry is a place where you can develop, where you can find work. That is, we need to bring forward new faces, and finally show students at arts universities that there is money in this field. I would not consider this some major problem. On the contrary, it is a chance to bring new faces to light and give an impetus to new debuts and talents,” she added.

Results of Tysyachevesna 2026

The Tysyachevesna initiative (formerly “1,000 Hours of Ukrainian Content”) launched on April 3, when the Ministry of Culture opened the submission of competition applications. After August 16, the winning projects were announced in seven categories.

In the “Feature Films and Series” category, 92 feature-length and short film projects won, including films about Kharlan, Horska, Virsky, Ilienko, the Hadiukiny Brothers, and the comedy Vertep v Khatu. In the “Non-fiction (Documentary) Films and Series” category, 70 projects won — including films about Superhumans, Symonenko, Yablonska, Kryvtsov, the murder of Farion, and Gongadze.

In the “Films for Children and Animation” category, 30 projects won, among them Fables of Skovoroda, Society of IPSOshnyky, and an animated film about the dog Patron. In the “Performing Arts” category, 133 projects won, including 20 projects from the Franko, Zankovetska, Lysenko, and Lesia Ukrainka theaters, as well as a number of festivals.

In the “Contemporary Music” category, 144 projects won — for Ziferblat, Carpetman, Artem Pivovarov, Maryna Krutʼ, and Victoria Niro. In the “Visual Arts” category, 77 projects won, including those from the Dovzhenko Film Studios, Gogolfest, Ukraïner, NAMU, and the Odesa Film Studio. In the “Audiovisual Shows and Social Media Videos” category, 135 projects won, among them Ukraïner, Babylon’13, NASHI BEZ rASHI, Vidval Nig, and Nashebachennia.

Plans for 2027

Berezhna announced an expansion of the project: next year Tysyachevesna will encompass books and online games, and book authors and libraries will be able to join the program in 2027. Plans also include introducing regulation of artificial intelligence use, raising the qualifying score for participation in pitching, and separating debut applicants from experienced ones.

In addition, in 2027 the project may introduce clear restrictions prohibiting the participation of artists and performers who collaborated with Russia during the war.

The draft state budget for 2027 allocates 5.4 billion hryvnias for Tysyachevesna — 1.4 billion hryvnias more than in the current year.