KYIV -- In one skit, Ukraine’s top spy, Kyrylo Budanov, is depicted apologizing to his wife for why they had to spend their vacation raiding the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.
In another, a man who published photographs of a Ukrainian air defense unit is shown visiting a doctor with his cell phone stuck up his buttocks.
Yet another shows a man deciding to follow his female partner in selling nude photographs to raise money for the Ukrainian armed forces.
The skits were performed by Kvartal 95, a Ukrainian comedy troupe whose co-founder also happens to be the country’s wartime president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. As Russia’s war on Ukraine -- now in its 31st month -- drags on, the Kvartal 95 group’s leaders told RFE/RL that it has a special wartime mission.
“We laugh so we win,” Yevhen Koshoviy, one of the troupe’s leading members, said during one of the group’s first wartime performances.
Kvartal 95’s humor helped propel Zelenskiy’s rise to the presidency in 2019; the group created a widely popular TV series called Servant Of The People, in which Zelenskiy played a bumbling schoolteacher who accidentally becomes president. Zelenskiy’s political party, which has controlled the government since 2019, is called Servant of the People.
Some 2,000 packed into Kyiv's Zhovtneviy Palace for one of its shows in October 2023.
The group, beloved for its mockery of politicians, continues to perform, even as its brightest star is the country’s president. Some complain it has become a vehicle for Zelenskiy boosterism, especially at a time when Ukrainians are exhausted by the war, but also unable to vote for a new leader due to wartime restrictions.
Kvartal 95 “has nothing to do with humor or even political satire” but is “just plain propaganda,” one political commentator, Vitaliy Portnikov, said in 2021.
Jokes For Soldiers
Kvartal 95 started out in Zelenskiy’s hometown of Kryviy Rih -- named after a neighborhood in a predominantly Russian-speaking city. It gained recognition in the late 1990s with its performances at KVN, a stand-up comedy competition that originated in the Soviet Union. The group rode that success to prominence in Ukraine’s entertainment industry.
In Ukraine, Kvartal 95 has long been seen as a barometer of society’s moods, even as some cultural critics have downplayed its brand.
Last October, at one of its first public wartime performances, some 2,000 people packed Kyiv’s Zhovtneviy Palace to watch a live show.
An actress dressed up as Kyiv’s Mother Ukraine gives her take on the country's decommunization policy.
Among those in the audience was 12-year-old Milana Stupachenko, whose mother, Olena Chelcova, gave her the ticket as a birthday present. Stupachenko’s father was killed while fighting on the front lines, Chelcova said.
“She always dreamed of seeing Kvartal live, and I want to do whatever to take her mind off the pain she is going through,” Chelcova told RFE/RL.
“Our job is to make the dreams of girls such as Milana come true,” Koshoviy, who is the group’s current front man, told RFE/RL in an interview in January. “Many people have grown up listening to our jokes.”
After the full-scale Russian invasion, the group paused their performances, as Koshoviy and Oleksandr Pikalov, Kvartal 95's top scriptwriter, switched to volunteering in the war effort, helping civilians and soldiers in various ways. Later, the group’s members started performing for military units, as a way to boost morale.
“At some point, when we were visiting military units at the front line, the soldiers asked: ‘And what about you guys? Aren’t you doing anything? You should get back to work!’” Koshoviy recalled.
He said the group’s comedians have visited more than 100 units to perform gigs and concerts for them.
“Everybody should look into the eyes of those who defend us,” Koshoviy said.
"The jokes I most like are the ones I cannot say from the stage," Pikalov told RFE/RL before one performance. "It is a time of black humor. The soldiers have a great, dark sense of humor."
Oleksander Pikalov, Kvarta 95’s top scriptwriter, poses for a fan's photo.
Both Koshoviy and Pikalov are Zelenskiy’s friends from Kryviy Rih; Koshoviy calls Zelensky “his best friend Vovan.”
The last time the three saw each other in the presidential office, Koshoviy said, they “discussed some professional issues” and “asked the president what else we can do.”
“We have a deal with the president. First, we visit soldiers to gauge their moods,” he said, and “to lift their spirits and then [Zelenskiy] visits for serious talks.”
“Or the other way around,” he added in jest.
'We Feel Proud'
Back in Zhovtneviy Palace, Kvartal 95’s wartime goal seemed clear: ridicule the enemy.
That includes prominent Russian cultural figures, such as Iosif Kobzon, a famous Soviet singer who, before his death in 2018, had backed Kremlin aggression against Ukraine.
In one sketch, Koshoviy impersonated Kobzon performing a concert for dead Russian soldiers in hell: “Please remember: Russia is to stay here forever!”
Yevhen Koshoviy, Kvartal 95’s current front man, plays Soviet singer Iosif Kobzon leading a choir of Russian soldiers performing in hell.
“It’s cheesy, but I like it” said Illya Tyshchenko, a veteran soldier whose leg was amputated after shrapnel from a missile. “They put their souls into it.”
“They call a spade a spade,” said Vitaliy Dovbynya, 56, who traveled from the central Cherkasiy region to see the Kvartal 95 performance live. He recalls seeing Zelenskiy performing in the troupe’s early years.
The humor “isn’t as good as it was with Zelenskiy, but I don’t think he will ever get back to comedy,” he told RFE/RL. “He needs to go for the second term as president.”
Unlike in the past, Kvartal 95’s shows are now almost entirely done in Ukrainian -- except for the parts parodying Russians.
“The war has triggered subconscious patriotism in all of us; we are united against the enemy,” said Iryna Pikalova, Kvartal 95’s producer and also Pikalov's ex-wife.
Still, there are some who turn their noses up at Kvartal 95’s brand of humor. Some have criticized the group for sexism, vulgar language, or what they call political conformism.
Kvartal 95 actors dressed up as women take part in a skit about a new law that established women-only compartments in Ukrainian trains.
Some of the Kvartal 95 Studio's shows are aired as part of a government-controlled, around-the-clock program called the Telemarathon, which is broadcast by the main television channels.
Last year, a scandal ensued when media reported that Kvartal 95 would receive public money for some of their planned productions. The country’s culture minister was soon dismissed as a result of the uproar, among other reasons.
The group came under fierce criticism in January after a skit that mocked a Ukrainian person displaced from Russian-occupied territory in the southern Kherson region. It poked fun at the Russian-speaking character, who had trouble switching to Ukrainian while on holiday in the western part of the country.
"I don't want to sound arrogant, but our critics are just jealous. Everyone should focus on unity now," Koshoviy said.
Kvartal 95’s shows aren’t all jokes and giggles. At a live show in Kyiv, the performance ended with a patriotic song that brought some in the audience to tears.
“The songs are something from within, something we want to convey to people,” Pikalova said. “When the audience, and especially the soldiers in the audience, listen to the last song with tears in their eyes, we feel proud.”