Dr. Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, journalist, and writer, leads PEN Ukraine as its president. He holds a doctorate in political studies from France and a PhD in philosophy from Ukraine.

As analytics director at Internews Ukraine and chief editor of UkraineWorld.org, an English-language multimedia project about Ukraine, he also teaches as an associate professor at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. A prolific writer of both non-fiction and fiction, Yermolenko has earned numerous prestigious awards, including the Myroslav Popovych Prize (2021), Petro Mohyla Prize (2021), Yurii Sheveliov Prize (2018), and Ukraine’s Book of the Year prize (2023, 2018, 2015), among others. He chairs the board of the International Renaissance Foundation (Open Society Foundations) and frequently gives public lectures.

Yermolenko hosts the English-language podcasts “Explaining Ukraine” and “Thinking in Dark Times” and co-hosts “Kult: Podcast” in Ukrainian with Tetiana Oharkova. His articles feature in prominent outlets like The Economist, Le Monde, Financial Times, New York Times, and Newsweek, and he has offered commentary for BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, France 24, France Culture, and Radio France International. Volodymyr’s work and interviews appear in numerous languages, including Ukrainian, English, French, German, Spanish, Polish, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Norwegian, Czech, Greek, and Chinese. He is a father of three daughters.