Explore these books, podcasts, and movies to learn more about Ukraine’s history, culture, and contemporary topics! This list was compiled by members of Baltimore-Odesa Sister City Committee from Baltimore Sister Cities (with help from the Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee).
— Books —
The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine
Author: Serhii Plokhy
Award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy presents the authoritative history of Ukraine and its people from the time of Herodotus to the present crisis with Russia. The Gates of Europe provides unique insight into the origins of the most dangerous international crisis since the end of the Cold War.
Voices of Freedom: Contemporary Writing From Ukraine
Editors: Kateryna Kazimirova and Daryna Anastasieva
Through poetry, short stories, and essays, this anthology demonstrates that the desire for freedom and the struggle to achieve it is a theme that cuts across generations of Ukrainian writers, and is a central preoccupation of Ukrainian society.
The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story
Author: Viktoria Belim
Inspired by the author’s love for her family, and peopled by warm, larger-than-life characters who jostle alongside the ghostly absences of others, The Rooster House is at once a riveting journey into the complex history of a wounded country and a profoundly moving tribute to hope and the refusal of despair.
Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia
Author: Peter Pomerantsev
In the new Russia, even dictatorship is a reality show. Dazzling yet piercingly insightful, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible is an unforgettable voyage into a country spinning from decadence into madness.
— Podcasts —
Yale Podcast Network: The Making of Modern Ukraine
Ukraine must have existed as a society and polity on 23 February 2022, else Ukrainians would not have collectively resisted Russian invasion the next day. What does it mean for a nation to exist? Timothy Snyder explores these and other questions in a very timely course.
Yale Podcasts about Ukraine: The Making of Modern Ukraine | More podcasts about Ukraine
Also available on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Youtube
Columbia University Harriman Institute: Voices of Ukraine
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, we have been hearing a lot of firsthand accounts of lives upended by the war. This podcast series tells the stories of Harriman community members who are in Ukraine or deeply connected to it. Voices of Ukraine is produced by Masha Udensiva-Brenner with music by Ivan Nebesnyy and artwork from Victoria Tentler-Krylov.
Podcasts on Columbia University website
Also available on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Youtube
UkraineWorld: Explaining Ukraine
UkraineWorld’s goal is to explain Ukraine, its politics, culture, history, and struggle, to the international audiences. Regular analysis of the major developments in Ukraine, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine — telling the stories of people, of their suffering and of their courage.
Podcasts on UkraineWorld website
Also available on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Youtube | More platforms are listed here: ListenTo
Back Fire: Stories of Cultural Counterforce
Videos and podcasts about the Ukraine’s culture sector and exchanges between Ukraine and the Netherlands cultural professionals. Hosted by DutchCulture, the national organization in the Netherlands that supports international knowledge exchanges in the cultural sector.
Videos and podcasts about Ukraine on DutchCulture site
Back Fire: Stories of Cultural Counterforce podcast series on DutchCulture site
Also available on: Spotify
— Movies —
Mavka: The Forest Song (2023)
Mavka – a soul of the forest – faces an impossible choice between love and her duty as guardian to the Heart of the Forest, when she falls in love with the talented young musician Lukash. An animated film based on the novella by Lesia Ukrainka.
20 Days in Mariupol (2023)
Academy award winning documentary. An Associated Press team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting atrocities of the Russian invasion.
Mr. Jones (2019)
A Welsh journalist breaks news in the western media of the Holodomor famine in Ukraine in the early 1930s. Based on real events, the dramatic thriller chronicles a British investigative journalist as he travels deep into the Soviet Union to uncover an international conspiracy.
Slovo House (2017)
Chain-smoking artists, poets and playwrights were among the colorful array of intellectuals living in the “Slovo House” in 1920s Ukraine. Despite being built with Stalin’s approval, it quickly became a prison as the brutal Soviet regime spied on the inhabitants and destroyed their eccentric way of life.
— Other —
Threads of Identity: The Unyielding Spirit of Ukraine’s Cultural Sector
An immersive website — a living archive of resilience amplifying Ukrainian voices, created by DutchCulture, an organization in the Netherlands that supports Ukraine’s cultural sector. Each contribution offers a story, an event, a podcast or a video, allowing you to wander through the collection. Several of the featured museum professionals are panelists in The Peale’s September 17, 2026 virtual event in conjunction with the WTWTA exhibition.
This page was created as a companion to the We Know Who They Are… (WTWTA) exhibition on display at Baltimore’s The Peale museum in 2026 — a comprehensive exhibition project featuring the artworks of 21 Ukrainian artists, and wartime artifacts. More information.
