Zelenskyy announced support for book publishing as part of the "Tysyachovesna" program starting in 2027
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that “Tysiachovesna,” the government program to support Ukrainian cultural products, could expand to include the publishing sector as early as next year.
“I would like to draw attention to a category that we did not have this year—books. I think it will definitely be included next year,” Zelenskyy said.
The president emphasized the need to increase funding for cultural projects and accelerate the development of Ukrainian content.
“So when we talk about children, and we’re not just talking about audiovisual art, we’re also talking about books, about every area where we can support our own,” the head of state emphasized.
According to the president, one of the priorities remains the creation of high-quality children’s content and animation, the development of which requires significant time and resources.
“We understand that children’s content needs time to become mainstream, for people to emerge, for animations to take shape—it takes years. It takes years for this to happen… We need to invest more in solutions and work harder in this area,” Zelenskyy noted.
The application period for the program ended on June 4. A total of 2,634 applications were submitted, of which 1,151 projects across seven categories were accepted for consideration. The total amount of funding requested is 10.8 billion UAH, and 17% of the applications are debut projects.
The largest number of applications were submitted in the following categories:
- audiovisual shows and content for social media – 270 applications;
- feature films and series – 238 applications;
- documentary films and series – 180 applications.
The technical review of documents, conducted by the competition committees of the Ministry of Culture, the State Film Agency, and the State Agency for Arts, will continue until June 12.
This will be followed by expert evaluation, which will take place from June 17 to July 28. Over 120 experts will evaluate the projects based on ten criteria, including:
- alignment with the competition’s theme;
- quality of the creative concept;
- professionalism of the team;
- potential to attract an audience;
- artistic and social value;
- originality of the idea;
- inclusivity and accessibility;
- feasibility of implementation.
Each project will be evaluated by five independent experts.
The final stage of the competition will take place in the format of a pitching festival from August 12 to 16, where authors will present their works to experts and competition committees.
The 2026 state budget allocates 4 billion hryvnias for the implementation of the “Tysiachovesna” program. At the same time, according to Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture Tetiana Berezhna, actual funding this year may amount to up to 3.2 billion hryvnias, which corresponds to 80% of the allocated amount.
The Ministry of Culture also plans to allocate funding for the program in 2027 and expand it to new areas, including book publishing and online games.
The head of state announced this during an event marking the start of the initiative’s project selection process in Kyiv.
In 2026, up to 3.2 billion hryvnias may be allocated to the “Tysiachovesna” cultural product support program.
The “Tysiachovesna” grant program to support Ukrainian culture has already received over a thousand applications from authors and creative teams across the country. A significant portion of the projects are debut works, and the final selection results are scheduled to be announced on June 12.
Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture Tetiana Berezhna presented the state program to support cultural products, “Tysiachovesna.”
