How the Ukrainian wikicommunity celebrated Wikipedia’s 25th anniversary

On January 15, 2026, Wikipedia turned 25 — marking a quarter-century as one of the world’s most well-known information resources. Here is a short recap of how the anniversary in the Ukrainian wikicommunity was celebrated.

We at Wikimedia Ukraine organized two events for the Ukrainian wikicommunity:

• January 15 — online
• January 18 — in person in Kyiv

Virtual celebration

The online meeting took place on Thursday, January 15, just right after the international celebration. A total of 22 participants joined this event.

Participants introduced themselves by sharing their names, locations, how long they had been editing, and their roles on Wikipedia. They also mentioned members of the wiki community whom they felt grateful to. The program continued with a “True or False” quiz about Wikipedia’s history (both Ukrainian and international), where participants voted in polls and discussed the facts together. For example, they guessed whether it was true that in 2011 the first article contest “French Autumn” took place in the Ukrainian Wikipedia, or that in 2014 a Wikipedia monument was unveiled in the Polish city of Słubice (spoiler — these are true facts :)). Meanwhile, the claim that the first article in the Ukrainian Wikipedia was “Kyiv” is false, since the very first article was titled “Atom.”

After a group photo, the meeting moved into a shared reflection and memory exchange. Participants talked about what used to be common on Wikipedia but is no longer, what has remained mostly unchanged for the better, and shared their warmest memories over the years. They also expressed their wishes for Wikipedia’s next 25 years — they wished Wikipedia prosperity, openness, and new active editors, and set a goal to celebrate its 50th anniversary together as well.

The celebration finished with an open, informal conversation on various topics.

In-person celebration in Kyiv

We also held an offline celebration for the Ukrainian wikicommunity that took place on Sunday, January 18, at the cozy restaurant in Kyiv.

Despite ongoing power outages and missile threat alerts, 14 people from the community gathered in person to mark the anniversary. Attendees introduced themselves and engaged in informal discussions on various Wikimedia-related topics. The group of participants was very diverse — the most prolific editor in the history of the Ukrainian Wikipedia sat next to a new Wikipedian who had recently written her first article, while members of the Board of “Wikimedia Ukraine” sat with educators who had first learned about us at an academic conference in November.