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Ukraine Hetalia - Blog Posts
THE CHILDREN YEARN FOR THE FANART OF UKRAINE
pov: You’re Poland; its 1620s and those "free armed folk" to the East, some of whom occasionally take part in wars on your side, have been more and more rebellious lately. You ride up to check what’s the deal — and as you pass one of the Cossacks, as they call themselves, the guy looks suspiciously similar to Ukraine herself…
***
1569. Lithuania had never been fond of Unia Lubelska that would unite the lands of the Grand Duchy with the Polish Republic. Yet Poland suddenly annexed Ruthenian – Ukrainian parts of the Duchy, using this move to pressure Lithuania back to negotiation tables.
Thus the era of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began.
For mainly Orthodox Christian Ruthenians, it only meant more tension with Catholics and szlachta nobles who realised they now acquired more serfs up for grabs.
There is no wonder then, that Ruthenians quite rapidly "cossack’ed" (покозачились) in such conditions. Many joined either free warrior communities or the rejestrowe wojsko zaporoskie under the polish crown’s service, but still able to do a fair deal of whatever the hell they wanted. Including uprisings against Poland, 1591-3 and 1594-6; allying with the Poles to almost(😭) burn Moscow to the ground in 1618; and occasionally raid Turks and Crimean Tatars.
But more importantly, paving the way for a powerful warrior state, autonomous from the Polish Republic by 1649, – Cossack Hetmanate (aka Hetman’schyna, Ruthenia, or simply Ukraine – all those + more names used at the time) – which famously takes its origins in Ukraine being pissed off.
The initial headcanon was that Ukraine ran away from the Commonwealth sometime after Lublin and pretended to be a guy to live amongst Cossacks and lead her raids and battles. Now, having read up some info on female Cossack leaders, I am thinking that whilst that might have been the case initially, by 1648 everyone knows she’s a woman and just chills about it ig
LOOK, LIETUKR HOLDING HANDS!!
Now that I have your attention, here’s a really cool historical event🫶🏼
Battle of Ula happened as a part of broader Livonian war that started when Muscovy (later: Russia) under Ivan the Terrible attacked the weakening state of Livonian Order. One small problem – that gradually dragged all its neighbours in. Initially, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia suffered losses, notably the city of Polatsk.
Then enter 1564. Muscovy’s army of ≈24 000 is rapidly advancing. So those ≈12 000 of Lithuanians and Ruthenians (self-identification term for Ukrainians and Belaruthians back then) figured that (early) modern problems require (early) modern solutions.
The battle destroyed all stereotyped ideas about military art of the early modern era. It happened not in a warm season, but in winter. It started neither in the morning nor in the afternoon, but in the evening, that is, it happened in the dark hours of the day. And it ended up a crushing defeat for Muscovy, partly due to sheer well cooperation between Lithuanians and Ruthenians, and overall their tactics, like a surprise attack of both army flanks on the forested Ula river.
Also even though they won, they didn’t manage to re-take Polatsk and some other vital terrirories to the East of the Grand Duchy from Muscovy YET (hence Belarus is not there). And this became one of the reasons the Grand Duchy completely united with Poland in 1569 (Unia Lubelska).
MAGMA COLLAB WITH @yummyseadas 🫨
“Ah how good that we only live once! Had it been twice, I wouldn’t have fuckin’ handled it”
drawing Ukraine into Ukrainian memes as self care (original under the cut)
i mawst apologeize fowr zhe lack of origgginal cowntwnt on zhis blog lateaealy, art hasn’t been arting and life not exactly lifing either. also my birthday is in less than a week and the very idea is terrifying.
прікол я спочатку думала що ʼхуй потягнувʼ типу…буквально потягнув. як мʼяз(?). не знаю чи це щось про мене говорить.
Hetalia Ukraine Headcanon #2 – or, rather, my take on Ukraine in Hetalia canon.
upd: I might have worded it a bit shitty, but the entire purpose of this post is that „canon/common fannon“ uwu crybaby Ukraine is bulshit and fuck canon we ball anyway. That I will be re-creating her character the way I want, and that‘s literally it. Damn. Pls don‘t misinterpret things, I‘m not defending Himaruya or anything
This is something that has to be clarified before I proceed, and even before I answer to any further asks.
I think of Ukraine in „canon Hetalia" as Russia's perspective, what he tells others about Ukraine and what he wants them to think of her, for his own purposes.
Because, if you recall, the episode where she is introduced (Axis Powers, ep 42), it is Russia telling England about her. Just like episode 43, it's Russia's memories and perspective. I hate that this fact is often overlooked, as it makes total sense for Russia to want others to see Ukraine as a weak crybaby that is dependant on him. In fact, this no shit is the attitude russians have to ukrainians. Almost inferior, (quote) unable to fend for themselves. It is not cute. It is very much toxic. The scarf moment is extremely fucking funny. Because, (and again, this is Russia's memories), Ukraine gives him her favorite scarf. But what people overlook, is that in return she asks (in dub) FOR CONTROL FROM BLACK SEA TO POLAND. HER TERRITORIES. THIS- THIS IS NOT A CUTE MOMENT. SHE IS TRYING TO GET AWAY. AS SHE ALWAYS HAS. FOR CENTURIES. Or, in sub, she asks for „inheritance rights to Kyivan Rus", so again, reclaiming a part of her identity. After which, russia concludes that maybe they've never been close at all. srsl I wish russia realised that in real life and fucked off already
To me, this is the first moment that shows that there is much more to Ukraine than what we see, and that Russia must in no way be trusted on his word when it comes to her.
Especially since In her next appearence, Gakuen Hetalian Newspaper Club part 1, Ukraine is nothing like that. She wants to join the choir club, where the baltic trio and others are, and we find out that the choir is targeted by the so-called „soviet club". Lmao. Nor she is in any of the Halloween episodes she appears in subsequently. Moreover, in the 2013 haloween series, Ukraine is shown dressed up as a reference to a Ukrainian(!!!) urban legend about a ghost train. So, she is not afraid to express her identity even at that point. Yes, she is emotional, but not a complete mess of a crybaby whose every 1 in 2 words is „Russia". Which further backs my theory.
The latest appearence, where in Chapter 389 of Hetalia world stars, Ukraine asks Lithuania to „sent spare paper Russias" to her if he ever gets any, because, quote „THIS RUSSIA IS OBEDIENT, QUIET, AND LISTENS TO WHAT I SAY".
Does this sound like a weak crybaby Ukraine whom Russia was describing to you?
No. That's the point.
Btw the only point in history I can think of where she could be referring to when she says it's „like we've gone back in time", is 7th - 10th century; when the principality of Suzdal (later: Muscovy→Russia) was just freshly colonized by Kyiv and Polatsk (later Ukraine and Belarus) and was paying fiefs to them. Which is like, literally 40 years before Suzdal’s prince plundered and burnt Kyiv down in 1169. A first russo-ukrainian war for you.
So, even from "canon hetalia", the idea of Ukraine's character that this fandom often percieves her as derives mostly from Russia's POV. Which is sad, ironic (represents the influence of russian propaganda irl), but also thanks fuck, this means we see so little of her that her personality can be easily interpreted in a multitude of ways that reflect history and reality way better
Hetalia Ukraine Headcanon #1: hair colour
…or new unexpected and un-asked for series, where I yap in detail about one headcanon on physical appearence, personality or history of my Ukraine interpretation at a time
This has been a thing that confused the hell out of me for ages, because her hair colour in the anime & official art exists on a spectrum from grey to white to blonde to ash blonde to yellow ??? (which may or may not be due to an art style change and had hapenned to 75% of characters at least) but REGARDLESS, I decided to put a twist on it
So, in my vision, her hair colour is best-described as «світло-русявий натуральний колір волосся»; which would, as per most suitable photos I found on the internet, loosely mean this:
So, you see; blonde, but not really blonde; depends on the lighting; the best English equivalent to «світло-русявий» my brain could think of was a borderline between «dark blonde», «light brown» and «ash-blonde», which coincidentally could all be applied to describe Ukraine’s hair in different depictions at different points
Furthermore, many Ukrainians on my experience would describe their hair as «русяве», ranging from темно-русяве for darker colours, to світло-русяве for lighter, to the point where it seems like a safe option in case your hair is not exactly dark or not 100% light and you are not sure what to reply. And even in folklore you’ll find a «руса коса до пояса»; «русява коса – дівоча краса»; or occasionally hair being compared to gold as well, i.e. «ой у полі жито, а в дівчини коса золота», translating too «there was wheat in the field, a girl had a golden braid» (more to come on her hairstyle!!)
by the way WHEAT. YET ANOTHER WAY I LIKE TO THINK OF HER HAIR COLOUR, is that it has the colour of wheat
I know you know what wheat looks like, just a moment of appreciation
And finally — Ukraine’s русявий hair colour changes slightly throughout the year! In the summer, when she gets lots of sun, it bleaches Ukraine’s hair a bit (UV light breaks down melanin in the hair blah blah blah); moreover it looks lighter in contrast to the skin tan she gets (again, we’ll get to this later); compared to winter when the tan fades and the hair would look visibly darker due to less sun exposure. And I mean like:
So, to sum up, I see Ukraine’s hair colour as „світло-русявий”, something closest to „dark blonde”, „light brown”, „ash blonde” or simply „wheat colour”, which tends to look darker in winter due to less sun exposure and lighter in the summer ;)
by the way fun fact, I’m NOT ignoring your guys’ asks; I just wanna draw something for each and do them justice, which happens to require some time (!!!)
she’s glad dick-tators do not live forever
72 years ago, on the 5th of March, the fucker responcible for the forced collectivisation, holodomor famine, the great purge and the execution of an entire generation of writers, poets, artists, thinkers that were first led to believe into a communist utopia; mass deportations, constant and brutal supression and destruction of national identity — and that to speak only of Ukraine, the list goes on and on, — was found dead in a puddle of his own piss, for he had paranoicly fired the only guard and doctors that still somehow tolerated him at that point. Joseph Stalin I mean.
I drew Ukraine bc the café in Washington in the original photo was serving free borscht (борщ) that day, a Ukrainian dish. And who‘s beside her on the right? Well. I suppose there‘d be LOTS of candidates among the nations. I‘ll leave that up to you to imagine ;)
does ukraine paint her nails? 💅
Excuse accepted? The thing is, she‘s most likely genuine. Also Felix paints the nails for her, most likely…they are short gells, yeah
Also shout out to the sunflower embroidery on her jacket, she did it herself. She usually either goes for traditional patterns or sunflowers. And the little neck jewelry is called a 'sylianka' (силянка), lots and lots of tiny beads woven into a pattern and sewn to a ribbon. I love messing with her outfits as you probably noticed. Headcanon number 918282, she wasn‘t allowed to wear anything vaguely traditional whilst forced to live at russia‘s, so compensates now by incorporating traditional elements into her looks as much as she can. And it looks cool, so why not
I‘m so tired. I usually draw silly stuff to distract myself from current events but—
Sounds ridiculous, right? Hah. Just how it feels.
I have a question for ukraine: is prussia a friend of yours?? 👀
Hah. I’m glad you asked. They used to be my shits and giggles crackship but I kind of drifted away from it and they’re friendos now.
They’ve got things in common if you think about it.
An almost textless version under the cut
There u go 💥💥💥
I kinda forgot it was an ask for Ukraine and just ranted uhhh sorry. sorry not sorry
is ukraine ticklish?
Here‘s Ukraine. She‘s lying to you (strategically)
Experimenting with shading through your requests here…(SEND IN MORE!!! ASK UKRAINE/ABOUT UKRAINE (1p or 2p LET’S GOOO) also, honestly, idk why every single time I draw her she looks like a different character; it‘s just my headcanons for her develop as I breathe and occasionally I forget/add things 🥲 yeah…
(Zoom in details mhehehe)
2p! Ukraine concept art(?)
I’ve had this idea for a while now, and finally got myself to somehow implement it into life
"In essence, 2p Ukraine personifies Ukrainian resistance, if you wish – hence the red-black flag, otherwise known as the revolutionary flag; or what happens when blood spilled fighting for her freedom spills onto the regular flag, whereas 1p represents the country as a whole"
she is more cautious, more serious and mistrustful; more of a cold tactical thinker, and oh boy she does not forgive that easily. amongst her distinct features would be a singular earring in her ear, darker hair+eyes, more angular and leaner face, thinner eyebrows and a slight hump on her nose. She occasionally draws an embroidery pattern on her cheek as a part of her make-up (could be seen on the yellow-scarf mini version)
zoom in for detail+notes; there is a lot to unpack about this character I swear.
GUYS. THIS. IT MAY LOOK LONG, BUT PLEASE. READ. THIS.
hi, so im kind of wondering what is your thoughts with hetalia especially the fact that it hasnt age well and specifically what do you think of the way hetalia Ukraine's character is handled
oh that's a great question, thank you! oh i sure have a lot of things to say but it'll be difficult to make it concise and readable
early hetalia certainly has aged like milk, the idea of making axis powers the main characters Did Not Spark Joy. it seems that himaruya made an effort to distance hetalia from that since then, there was this whole rebranding from "axis powers hetalia" to "hetalia world stars" and the comics no longer touch on ww2 but rather modern day, sometimes history, some fun facts, and sometimes have no basis whatsoever. it's hard to judge the intentions behind that. sure it has ironed some of the problems but general inaccuracy and disrespectful portrayal of countries remains an issue. and personally i just find himaruya's writing bad and unfunny.
and now for ukraine. oh dear.
to start off easy, a short note on her appearance - as a ukrainian, it's a bit weird to see her blonde and blue eyed? the beauty standard here for centuries has been "black hair brown eyes" and it's seen in folk songs, poems and novels. and yet it's not just hetalia that does that. it's not a mistake really, i'm just weirded out, especially after how western far-right and far-left has been explaining support for ukraine as "because ukrainians are blonde and blue-eyed".
but onto her most prominent visual trait, let's talk about boobs. in hetalia collezione from 2021 (i think?), on ukraine's character profile himaruya has written that he was inspired by naked female protesters upon creating her.
the "naked protesters" are femen, a radical feminist activist group famous for topless protests. it's a group of like, 15 people. they were last prominent in 2013. i think most ukrainians barely even remember them. it's fucking wild to me that he based an entire country personification off of that. it is, however, quite telling of him that himaruya saw feminist protesters and only saw potential for cheap jokes about boobs.
i chose a good screenshot, it shows some other problems as well - "crybaby", "poor" and "she loves russia chan". i'll save the latter for last. let's focus on her being a crybaby and poor. "but actually very strong!", himaruya says, except i can't recall any examples in canon where ukraine has been shown as strong. instead her whole personality and appearance reeks of 2000s perception of eastern europe, influenced by both western and russian chauvinism to show them as inferior. ukrainian women have been stereotyped like hetalia ukraine - poor, huge tits, weak in a "traditionally feminine" way, whores. it was disgusting back then, it's even more disgusting that in 20 years himaruya didn't bother to revisit that at all.
politically speaking, these jokes, about ukraine being poor and weak and dependent on russia, while have some basis in the reality of 1990-2000s ukraine, are very insensitive to the causes of these issues and just feel like punching down.
and now, "she's loves russia chan". lol. lmao even. in 2021 no less. it has been another consistent trait of hers, as shown on the screenshot above that she just wants to get along with her "siblings" russia and belarus. to talk to russia "like i used to". there's this sense that they somehow grew distant, and all of them regret it, but it's never shown what happened.
what it really reminds me of is the russian narrative "big bad evil politicians (and/or big bad evil west) want to divide our brotherly nations, the people just want to live in peace but have no say in it" and shit like that. it's not the case. what happened is the russian state trying to tie ukraine in its sphere of influence, using economic blackmail to influence its political decisions, and then punishing ukraine with occupation of crimea and parts of donetsk and luhansk regions for choosing eu over russia. even before that, but especially after 2014, the amount of chauvinism russian media and russian people has shown has been enormous. i grew up in an environment dominated by russian media showing how ukrainians were nothing more but dumber, poorer rural russians. since 2014 they also started calling us nazis, child eaters, ukrainian identity - fake and made up by austro-hungarian empire, ukrainian lands - gifts of lenin, and so on. i will stress again - not just russian media. but russian people. even the supposed "liberal opposition".
but yeah sure, we're brotherly nations. nothing but love between ukraine and russia. ironically, the last appearance of ukraine in hetalia comics as of now is a comic from late 2021 about how much ukraine loves russia. since then it seems himaruya has been too much of a coward to draw her again. thank fuck, really.
and fandom is no fucking better by the way. whenever i go into hws ukraine tag it's still half full of fanart of "soviet siblings" (the fucking audacity to use that name too), showcasing that "brotherly love" between ukraine and two aggressor states towards it.
but y'know, a lot of people in this fandom will claim that it's apolitical, that these are just characters. so, a few questions:
if it's apolitical, why does hetalia cover political events, like brexit?
is a country not a political entity? is a nation not a political entity?
is the genre of satire not political?
if these are just characters, why call them country names? why not just make them your human ocs? why tie their lives to historical and political events?
it just doesn't make sense to me. "it's not political" is an incredibly flimsy excuse. everything that has to do with portrayal of countries and cultures is inherently political. and if you want to be a decent person, there's a responsibility to portray these nations and cultures respectfully: do your research, talk to people from these countries, otherwise you're building with no foundation. it's not even hetalia-specific advice, this applies to writing any character from countries different to your own.
this was. very long. can't think of how to shorten it nor i really want to, i tried to answer this as fully as i could.
there's not much point in explaining all that to people who after 2 (10) years still don't get what the problem is. i expect this post only to get attention from people who already agree with it, and mostly ukrainians. but eh, maybe a miracle will happen and someone from outside my bubble would read it.
man I wish there’s canon Ukraine development that makes her much independent
I do love the headcanons please keep on coming
I'd rather see Ukrainian fans write her than hima's attempts, he doesn't seem very interested or passionate about developing his characters besides the main 8
The only instance of Ukraine being Ukrainian in hetalia I've seen is the chibi artwork where she has the painted pysanka eggs next to her
I make edits with official art for fun where she's Ukrainian though :D
lazy af Ukraine character sheet, I love her sm you can’t imagine
also first art of 2025 yay?
Help share the plea of a transgender Sudanese woman living in a refugee camp!
hi all, i'm sure those of you following have been seeing me make various posts about @muhshinmagala1tranz 's situation and how it changes as time passes. since the situation continues to evolve, i wanted to lay a baseline and just explain to the best of my ability the group's broader struggles. this post may be marked as mature, as the last big post was, so please help if you can by giving this a reblog before staff decides to destroy the traction this post may get.
i hope illustrating these issues will perhaps persuade those reading to give a reblog. before i go any further, i will link the gofundme and magala's site that my brother and i helped make:
so, as many of you may know, i have been talking with magala for several months now, and things have been terrible for her and her group. their larger group is much bigger, but she and her lgbt siblings make up about 34 people now. resources like food, water, mattresses, pads, soap, mosquito nets, and so on are tight, and jobs are hard to come by due to the violent descrimination they face in living their lives as transgender and gay people, because bigots won't hire them. magala once asked me if i believed that they deserved to exist, just because they're trans, after her friend had been visciously attacked and beaten nearly to death. it broke my heart. their ultimate goal is to move to a camp two countries away that has many more lgbt people and a much kinder and less violent climate, but they need money to do that, at least $2000, and that is money that could go to helping their camp members various ailments. it's especially difficult with how much they're struggling to meet their most basic of needs right now.
as of now, their group is comprised mainly of sick and injured people, many of whom need surgery or medical intervention and can't afford it. several of them are very ill with no discernable cause, and they can't get help because there is simply no money. many of them have chipped or broken teeth, or jaw injuries from being beaten, as assaults and beatings are extremely common. this is to say nothing of camp life, which sometimes includes raiders visiting and stealing what little they have, and abducting people. the other day magala showed me her own false teeth, which she had to get after she was beaten badly, and now her jaw is extremely painful to use and cracks when she opens her mouth. five members are HIV positive and NEED the medicine, but also food and water to take it with. a child of one of her camp members has cancer, and needs a $5000 surgery. for those watching my posts, magala's friend was just kicked out of a hospital after she was nearly beaten to death by a group of transphobic people, all because they couldn't meet the funds, and if i hadn't been here as her security net, she and her friend would have literally gone to jail. and her friend is STILL injured and STILL almost died, with no help. the police shaved off magala's beautiful hair as well. what i'm trying to say here is that if i and my friends were not here during that event, there would be no campaign because she would not be here to speak to us or fend for her group. please don't leave magala alone and relying on only one or two people, and her group relying on only her! this is what the LGBT community is FOR, supporting and helping one another and boosting the voices of those being run down.
a reblog takes half a second, and makes a world of difference!
^^^ these are some of the people with HIV, some of the people who need medical intervention they can't afford, and some of the people sick with something they can't even identify. the last image is the boy with cancer. you can see what it's doing to his body.
magala risks a lot to try to get these photos to us so we can see what she's going through - some people attack her for daring to take photos of them or around them, or of her own situation, and in some places photos are entirely forbidden. she is begging people to just listen to her story -- if you want to verify it yourself, you can message her, right here on tumblr. she's a wonderfully kind woman, doing her best to lead her fellow lgbt siblings in am impossible climate of intolerance.
i know people rarely read these posts in full these days, but if you did, thank you, so, so much. please spare a reblog, donate $5 if you can... this is an extremely difficult situation and right now she's weathering this storm almost entirely alone. and if this story moves you and you want to help further, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or to her. we need help wherever we can get it, especially in spreading this post and finding people who can help with that. we also need help in being able to cross post to different platforms like tiktok, which would be amazing, and is something i just can't do on my own as one disabled person on tumblr. i really want my friend to not have to live in fear that the next day is her last.
thank you again, so much, from the bottom of my heart.