Famous people of Ukraine

Ukrainian people are well-known around the world. They certainly famous for different achievements, but they are popular and loved by their fans across the planet. Many of them work non-stop to reach their goal and many used their talents to become wealthier and try a better life abroad. Their achievements may encompass a variety of fields but they are loved and celebrated by their people and fans across educational and cultural divides.

Klitschko brothers
Vitali Klitschko, older brother, is the current WBC world heavyweight champion. He has the highest knockout percentage (95%) of any heavyweight boxing champion in overall fights. He also holds the distinction of being a three time world heavyweight champion, having previously held the WBO and WBC titles, and has never been knocked out or knocked down in any professional boxing bout. Vitali is the first professional boxing world champion to hold a Ph.D. (in sports science).
His younger brother, Vladimir Klitschko, is a Ukrainian heavyweight boxer. Klitschko is the unified IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring Magazine Champion of the world.
Dates of birth: Vladimir - 25 March 1976 (Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR), Vitali - 19 July 1971 (Belovodsk, Kirghiz SSR) in family of Ukrainians

Lilia Podkopayeva
Lilia Podkopayeva is the 1996 Olympic all-around champion. She is widely regarded as one of the best gymnasts in history. She is the proud owner of 45 gold, 21 silver and 14 bronze medals.
Date of birth: 15 August 1978 (Donetsk, Ukrainian SSR)

Andriy Shevchenko
Andriy Shevchenko is a Ukrainian footballer who plays for Dynamo Kyiv and the Ukraine national team as a striker. He is the third-highest goalscorer in Champions League history with 58 goals as of 10 March 2011, behind Ruud van Nistelrooy (60) and Raul (71). Shevchenko is ranked as the third top goalscorer in all European competitions with 67 goals. The most prestigious of Andriy’s awards were the Ballon d'Or in 2004 (becoming the third Ukrainian, after Oleg Blokhin and Igor Belanov to receive it) and the UEFA Champions League in 2003 with Milan. Besides the Golden Ball, Shevchenko was awarded other individual awards.
Date of birth: 29 September 1976 (Dvirkivshchyna, Kyivska oblast, Ukrainian SSR)

Anna Bessonova
Anna Bessonova is the number one rhythmic gymnast in Ukraine. In 2007, Bessonova became world champion at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship in Patras winning the all-around gold medal. She won the bronze individual all around medals at the 2008 Beijing and 2004 Athens Olympics. Over the course of her career she has won 24 World Championship medals, 2 Olympic medals, 24 European Championship medals and 10 World Cup medals (60 in total).
Date of birth: 29 July 1984 (Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR)

Sergey Bubka
Serhiy Bubka is six times world champion (between 1983 and 1997), European champion in 1986 and Olympic champion in 1988. He broke the world record for men's pole vaulting 35 times (17 outdoor and 18 indoor records). He was the first to clear 6.0 metres and the first and only to clear 6.10 metres (20 ft). He holds the current outdoor world record of 6.14 metres (20 feet 1 3/4 inches), set on 31 July 1994 in Sestriere, Italy and the current indoor world record of 6.15 meters, set on 21 February 1993 in Donetsk, Ukraine.
Date of birth: 4 December 1963 (Lugansk, Ukrainian SSR)

Yana Klochkova
Yana Klochkova is a Ukrainian swimmer, who has won five Olympic medals. 4 gold medals came in the 200 meter individual medley and the 400 meter individual medley at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics. Her silver medal came in the 800 meter freestyle at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Date of birth: 7 August 1982 (Simferopol, Crimea, Ukrainian SSR)

Oksana Baiul
Oksana Baiul is a Ukrainian professional figure skater. She is the 1994 Olympic champion in ladies' singles and the 1993 World champion.
Date of birth: 16 November 1977 (Dnepropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR)

Vasyl Virastyuk
Vasyl Virastyuk is a strongman competitor from Ukraine. He competed in the finals of the World's Strongest Man contest in 2003 (3rd place) and 2004 (1st place). As well he won the 2007 IFSA Strongman World Championship.
Date of birth: 22 April 1974 (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukrainian SSR)

Varvara Akulova
Varvara Akulova is a great athlete. As a child and teenager she was several times recognized as the strongest girl on the planet, which was twice confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records. She was capable of lifting up to 48 stone (300 kg), over four times her bodyweight in 2006. In 2000, she weighed 40 kg and could lift 220 pounds (100 kg).
Date of birth: 10 January 1992 (Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine)

Kseniya Simonova
Kseniya Simonova is a sand animator from Ukraine. She started drawing with sand after her business collapsed due to the 2008 financial crisis, and had less than one year experience when she entered Ukraine's Got Talent. She became the 2009 winner of that show, making a sand animation that portrayed life during the USSR's Great Patriotic War against the Third Reich in World War II. Simonova won 1,000,000 Ukrainian Hryvnia (approx. USD125,000) for her first place in the show. A YouTube video of the performance has received more than 15 million hits.
Date of birth: 22 April 1985 (Eupatoriya, Ukrainian SSR)

Karina Smirnoff
Karina Smirnoff is a Ukrainian American professional ballroom dancer. When she was five years old, she began taking ballet lessons, followed by gymnastics, aerobics, figure skating, ballroom dancing and piano. She chose to pursue ballroom dancing.
In 1992, Smirnoff emigrated to the United States, and is reportedly a naturalized United States citizen. Smirnoff graduated from Fordham University with a double major in economics and information system programming. During her academic studies, Smirnoff's goal was to go to law school and become an attorney. However she later came across a dance school in Brooklyn, New York, and after some time there dancing became her profession.
She is a five-time U.S. National Champion, World Trophy Champion, and Asian Open Champion. Smirnoff has won the title at the UK Open, is a three-time champion at the US Open, two-time champion at the Asian Open, five-time champion at the Dutch Open, and five-time US National Professional Champion. She has been ranked second in the world, and took second at the British Open Blackpool Dance Festival. She is "the first woman to ever make the British Professional Final with three different partners".
Date of birth: 2 January 1978 (Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR)

Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Ponomariov is a Ukrainian chessplayer and former FIDE world champion. In 1998, at the age of fourteen, he was awarded the Grandmaster title, making him the youngest ever player at that time to hold the title. In 2002 Ruslan became FIDE world champion at the age of 18, the first teenager and youngest person to ever become FIDE world champion.
Date of birth: 11 October 1983 (Gorlovka, Donetska oblast, Ukrainian SSR)

Ruslana
Ruslana is the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, a World Music Award winning and MTV Europe Music Award nominated artist. She is a singer, songwriter, producer, conductor, and pianist. She writes, composes and produces her own songs and music videos.
Date of birth: 24 May 1973 (Lviv, Ukrainian SSR)

Ani Lorak
Ani Lorak is a Ukrainian pop singer. Lorak represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "Shady Lady" and came in 2nd place behind Dima Bilan from Russia. She came second in the «Press Award Eurovision Song Contest» and won the «Artistic Award» for her performance.
Date of birth: 27 September 1978 (Kitsman, Chernivetska Oblast, Ukrainian SSR)

Anastasia & Victoria Petryk
Victoria & Anastasia Petryk are two Ukrainian sisters. Victoria & Anastasia are the winners of New Wave Junior (contest for young performers of popular music) 2010 in different categories. They both competed in this years Ukraine Got Talent .
Date of birth: Anastasia - 4 May 2002 (village Nerubayskoe, Odesska region, Ukraine)
Victoria - 21 May 1997 (Odessa, Ukraine)

Milla Jovovich
Milla Jovovich is an Ukrainian-born actress, supermodel, fashion designer, singer and public figure, who was on the cover of more than a hundred magazines, and starred in such movies as Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991), a sci-fi blockbuster The Fifth Element (1997), Joan of Arc (1999), Ultraviolet (2006), and the Resident Evil (2002). She graced magazine covers of 'The Face', 'Vogue', 'Cosmopolitan' and many other magazines.
Date of birth: 17 December 1975 (Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR)

Olga Kurylenko
Ukrainian-born actress and model Olga Kurylenko is known for her steamy but serious roles in several French films: L’Annulaire (2005), Paris, je t'aime (2006), The Snake (2006). Following a successful career in France, Kurylenko has crossed over into American movie roles in Hitman (2007). She played the Bond girl, Camille, in Quantum of Solace (2008) a sequel to 2006's Casino Royale. Nowadays Olga Kurylenko is in Empires of the Deep 3D China Project.
Date of birth: 14 November 1979 (Berdyansk, Zaporiz'ka Oblast, Ukrainian SSR)

Olesya Stefanko
Olesya Stefanko is a Ukrainian beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Ukraine Universe 2011 and represented her country in the 2011 Miss Universe pageant, where she was 1st runner up. Olesya Stefanko became Ukraine's highest placement in history. Olesya was born in Kolomyia (village Kovalivka) in the Carpathian region of Ukraine. She was named Miss Odesa National Law Academy in 2008 as a student at the Institute of Prosecution and Investigation. After her victory at Miss Ukraine Universe 2011, she began her modeling career. She's currently pursuing a law degree in Odessa.
Date of birth: 25 June 1988 (Kovalilvka in Kolomiya, Ukrainian SSR)

Snejana Onopka
Snejana Onopka is a Ukrainian supermodel known for her deep-set eyes & pin-thin body. She has since been on the covers of numerous magazines, including i-D, Numero, & Italian Vogue (twice). Onopka also has shot advertisements for Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Lanvin, Prada, Yves Saint-Laurent, & Louis Vuitton.
Date of birth: 15 December 1986 (Severodonetsk, Luganska oblast, Ukrainian SSR)

Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov (was a Russian novelist and playwright of the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for the novel The Master and Margarita. During his life, Bulgakov was best known for the plays he contributed to Konstantin Stanislavsky's Moscow Art Theatre.
Bulgakov started writing prose in the early 1920s, when he wrote The White Guard (1924, published in 1966) - a novel about a life of a White Army officer's family in Civil war Kiev, and a short story collection entitled Notes of a Young Doctor, based on Bulgakov's work as a country doctor in 1916 - 1919. In the mid-1920s, he came to admire the works of H.G. Wells and wrote several stories with sci-fi style elements, notably The Fatal Eggs (1924) and the Heart of a Dog (1925).
Date of birth: 15 May 1891 (Kiev, Ukraine )

Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (March 9, 1814 [O.S. February 25] – March 10, 1861[O.S. February 26]) was a Ukrainian poet, also an artist and a humanist. His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, of modern Ukrainian language. Shevchenko also wrote in Russian and left several masterpiece paintings.
Date of birth: 9 March 1814 (Moryntsi, of Kiev guberniya )