Ten stories about the people who keep Ukraine going

The first two seasons showed Ukraine through travel. The third season changes the focus: ten documentary stories about people who keep the country living and moving forward during the full-scale war.

Their stories will be discovered by an English-speaking foreigner who lives in Ukraine. The season will be released in Ukrainian and English and is being created with the support of the Tysiachovesna programme.

Previous seasons ↓

The story so far

Ukraine through the eyes of foreigners

Destination UA began in 2019 as the first English-language travel show about Ukraine. Foreign hosts arrived without ready-made answers, met local people and tried the country for themselves: its cities, food, history, nature and modern culture.

The project was supported by the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. The first season also became part of the #ExploreUkraineNow campaign, and Ukrainian embassies used its episodes to present the country abroad.

40released episodes

100+locations across Ukraine

2travel seasons to watch

Season one

Thirty days across Ukraine

Dimitrios from Greece and Jonnah from Sweden followed a route from western Ukraine to the Black Sea and Kyiv. Twenty English-language episodes captured the trip as a sequence of real encounters and unfamiliar experiences.

The route is shown schematically. Each point represents a filming destination.

Map base: Sven Teschke, Yarl · CC BY-SA 3.0

The route

Lviv, Tustan, Uzhhorod, Mukachevo, Synevyr, Hoverla, Chernivtsi, Khotyn, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Bakota, Uman, Odesa, Vylkove, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih, Myhiya, Lutsk, Chornobyl and Kyiv.

What happens

A medieval festival in Tustan, buffaloes near Mukachevo, the climb to Hoverla, rafting on the Southern Bug, the canals of Vylkove, industrial landscapes in Kryvyi Rih and two very different days in Kyiv.

Watch all episodes of season 1 ↗

Season two

Twenty encounters with lesser-known Ukraine

British hosts Heather Nelson and Rob Jones left the familiar Kyiv–Lviv–Odesa route behind. The second season looked for places, crafts and stories that foreign travellers rarely encountered. Every episode was released in English and dubbed into Ukrainian.

The route is shown schematically. The season deliberately moved beyond Ukraine’s best-known tourist triangle.

Map base: Sven Teschke, Yarl · CC BY-SA 3.0

The route

Kyiv region, Chernihiv, Baturyn and Kachanivka, Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Petrykivka, Dnipro, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr region, Crimea in Kyiv and Chornobyl.

What happens

Ivan Kupala at the Kyivan Rus Park, Cossack history in Baturyn, canoe building in Sumy, Kharkiv constructivism, Petrykivka painting, the Oleshky Sands, the Pink Lake and Crimean Tatar culture carried by people forced to leave Crimea.

Watch all episodes of season 2 ↗

All episodes

Continue the journey on YouTube

Both travel seasons — 40 episodes from more than 100 locations across Ukraine — are available on the Destination UA channel.

Open YouTube channel ↗