On the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree conferring state awards to volunteers, energy workers, teachers, medical professionals, journalists, cultural figures, and athletes.
Among the recipients, the Order of Merit, II class, was awarded to Yurii Savchuk, Director General of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. Since February 2022, under his leadership, the museum has been collecting war artifacts: military equipment, fragments of missiles and drones, documents, photographs, and personal belongings of both military personnel and civilians. The first exhibition on the lives of Ukrainians under occupation opened in May 2022. Yurii Savchuk travelled to settlements immediately after their liberation from Russian occupiers, including Bucha, Irpin, Izyum, and Kherson. A few days after the start of the Kursk operation, he visited the region and brought back numerous exhibits.
Recipients of the Order of Merit, III class, include members of the band Kurgan & Agregat and volunteers Yevhenii Volodchenko, Amil Nasirov, and Ramil Nasirov. The band supplies vehicles, drones, and other equipment to Ukrainian warriors. During a European tour, the musicians raised over UAH 14 million, which was directed to the needs of the Defense Intelligence. In 2025, a single concert at the Kyiv Palace of Sports generated over UAH 9 million for the Defense Forces of Ukraine.
The Head of State also awarded the Order of Princess Olga, III class, to literary scholar and writer Vira Ageyeva, author of numerous publications on Ukrainian modernist literature, biographical studies, and gender aspects of art. She has created a series of scholarly portraits of writers, highlighting little-known facts from their biographies. She is a laureate of the Shevchenko National Prize and the Petro Mohyla Prize.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy also awarded the Order of Princess Olga, III class, to literary scholar and cultural researcher Tamara Hundorova, who developed the concept for the development of Ukrainian modernism. She has taught in particular at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, as well as at Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Toronto.