--- description: Yulia Marushevska felt strongly about the violent protests in her home country of Ukraine, so she did what so many young people do: She took... title: Ukrainian Social Media Star YouTubes About Home Country image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03b5e15c50e88a86/69868965169ab0b7fa278aab/ukraine.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Ukrainian Social Media Star YouTubes About Home Country by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 7, 2014 10:47 PM CUT  After 8 million views the Ukrainian star of a viral video goes on tour. After 8 million views the Ukrainian star of a viral video goes on tour. by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 7, 2014 10:47 PM CUT Yulia Marushevska felt strongly about the violent protests in her home country of Ukraine, so she did what so many young people do: She took to the social media. Marushevska’s two-minute YouTube video _I am a Ukrainian_, explaining how her people “want to be free of a dictatorship” has since gone viral, garnering nearly 8 million views. After seeing Marushevska’s passion, the Hollywood Director Ben Moses decided to give her a platform by shooting this viral video in collaboration with her. _I am a Ukrainian_ certainly caught the right people’s attention, including professional billionaire Richard Branson, who is funding Marushevska’s North American speaking tour. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/52525/ukrainian-social-media-star-youtubes-about-home-country/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/52525/ukrainian-social-media-star-youtubes-about-home-country/"},"headline":"Ukrainian Social Media Star YouTubes About Home Country","datePublished":"2014-04-07T22:47:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:10:55.042Z","description":"Yulia Marushevska felt strongly about the violent protests in her home country of Ukraine, so she did what so many young people do: She took...","url":"https://time.com/52525/ukrainian-social-media-star-youtubes-about-home-country/","keywords":["Ukraine","russia","Richard Branson"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03b5e15c50e88a86/69868965169ab0b7fa278aab/ukraine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03b5e15c50e88a86/69868965169ab0b7fa278aab/ukraine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ukrainian Social Media Star Speaks in the US","caption":"After 8 million views the Ukrainian star of a viral video goes on tour.","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/52525/ukrainian-social-media-star-youtubes-about-home-country/","name":"Ukrainian Social Media Star YouTubes About Home Country"}}]}] ```