Diaspora Ukrainians: They're those emigre Ukrainians who kept the national flame going during the Soviet period. That gives them the status of real Ukrainians, right? A Ukrainian-born native investigates. I'll never forget one thing a friend told me before I

So it turns out Dasha Astafieva is quite chaste. The moment's top Ukrainian sex bomb, Dasha is known for singing in the underdressed girl-pop group Nikita, doing naked weather reports on TV, palling around with Hef at the Playboy Mansion

Heroic Scot Jim Gillies will soon be back in Ukraine, making his yearly charitable giving trip. Over the years the retired Glasgow-area electrician has raised some 20,000 pounds for a children's hospital in Malin, in the Chornobyl zone, that he's

Premiere of 'The Night Before Christmas', National Opera House (50 Volodymyrska), 30 October at 19.00 Evhen Stankovych, one of Ukraine's most eminent contemporary composers, presents his ballet 'The Night Before Christmas'. Based on the work by Gogol, that great Ukrainian

Veryovka Choir in concert, National Philharmonic (2 Volodymyrsky Uzviz), 27 October at 19.00 Grygoriy Veryovka did a remarkable thing. In 1943, in the midst of World War II, he formed a choir that has existed the 60 plus years since,

A-Studio in concert, Palace Ukraine (103 Chervonoarmiyska), 5 November at 19.00 Over the decades this favourite Russian band has changed its line-up a lot, but they keep pumping out the romantic dance-pop/rock that they always have with such skill and

Olha Basystyuk in concert, House of Organ and Chamber Music (77 Chervonoarmiyska), 25 October at 19.30 Classical music fans take note when singer Olha Basystyuk performs. Her repertoire includes over 300 classical compositions, both from Ukraine and around the world,

Concert of Mourning, National Philharmonic (2 Volodymyrsky Uzviz), 25 October at 19.00 This year Ukraine marks the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor, the notorious 'Terror Famine' against the Ukrainian peasantry and people, which took place during the years 1932-33. The

It's onward and upward with the Ukrainian arts, as everybody's favourite native drag act (sorry, Monroe) has reportedly been offered a role in a Hollywood movie. Other than that it's a Warner Brothers production and that Verka will play a

Potap and Nastya Kamenskykh, Palace Sport (1 Sportyvna Pl.), 7 November at 19.00 Nastya Kamenskykh, winner of the UBN awards, and Potap, Ukraine's biggest rap star, join forces for a concert next month at Palace Sport. The two have been

Steve Vai in concert, Kyiv Polytechnic Institute concert hall (37 Peremohy Pr.), 28 October at 19.00 Steve Vai — or Steven Siro Vai, if you're looking at his birth certificate — is a living guitar legend. After touring with Frank

In Memory of a Master', exhibition of paintings by Vyacheslav Klokov, National Art Museum of Ukraine (6 Hrushevskoho), from 29 October As part of its continuing series on the Ukrainian art scene, the National Art Museum of Ukraine has put

Word has it that Ani Lorak, whose classically Ukrainian 'kary ochi' (dark eyes) stare out at you from nearly every advertising poster in Kyiv, will finally get hitched to her long-time beau, the dashing Turk Murat, sometime next year. Earlier