- ✓Good news first: Ukraine’s national news is free worldwide — Suspilne and the United News (Yedyni Novyny) telethon stream free on YouTube, no VPN needed.
- ✓The entertainment platforms — Megogo’s full catalogue, sweet.tv, Kyivstar TV and 1+1 — are geo-locked to Ukraine and need a Ukrainian IP.
- ✓Unlike an EU country, Ukraine has no cross-border portability, so living in Ireland means a VPN for those geo-locked services.
- ✓The VPN side is easy: Ukraine servers are plentiful and physical — NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN and CyberGhost all run Kyiv servers.
- ✓Honest catch: sweet.tv actively blocks most VPNs — ExpressVPN is the most reliable for it.
The quick answer
Ukrainian TV splits neatly in two. The news — Suspilne and the United News (Yedyni Novyny) telethon — streams free on YouTube worldwide, so you need no VPN for it. The entertainment — Megogo’s full catalogue, sweet.tv, Kyivstar TV and 1+1 — is geo-locked to Ukraine, so for those you connect a VPN to a Ukraine server for a Ukrainian IP. The VPN side is the easy part: Ukraine servers are plentiful.
Ukrainian news is free on YouTube, no VPN — a Ukraine server is only for the entertainment platforms like Megogo and sweet.tv.
The news is free — no VPN needed
We’ll lead with the part that matters most to a community keeping one eye on home. Suspilne, Ukraine’s public broadcaster, and the joint United News telethon that has run since February 2022 are distributed free through YouTube and digital platforms — including English and Russian feeds. That means the most important, most reliable Ukrainian news reaches you in Ireland with no VPN, no subscription, nothing to set up. Bookmark Suspilne’s YouTube channel and you have verified national news on tap.
What needs a Ukrainian IP
A VPN earns its place for the entertainment and full live-TV line-ups, which are tied to Ukraine by licensing:
- Megogo’s full catalogue and live channels — some of Megogo works internationally, but the complete line-up is Ukraine-only.
- sweet.tv — its 260-plus channels and film library are geo-locked (and it’s VPN-hostile — see below).
- Kyivstar TV — the telecom’s streaming service, locked to Ukraine.
- 1+1 video — the major broadcaster’s drama, shows and catch-up, geo-restricted.
The main Ukrainian services
Here’s the landscape, and whether each needs a Ukrainian IP:
- Suspilne / United News (free, no VPN). National news and the telethon, free on YouTube worldwide.
- Megogo (VPN for the full catalogue). The giant — up to 400-plus live channels, films and shows; partly international, fullest with a Ukraine IP.
- sweet.tv (VPN to Ukraine). 260-plus channels and a strong film library, geo-locked and VPN-resistant.
- Kyivstar TV & 1+1 video (VPN to Ukraine). Telecom streaming and one of Ukraine’s biggest broadcasters, both Ukraine-only.
The honest bit
Three honest points. First — and best — the news you most want is already free here; we’d rather tell you that than sell you a workaround. Second, unlike an EU country, Ukraine has no cross-border portability, so a subscription tied to Ukraine won’t simply follow you to Ireland — that’s where a Ukraine server comes in. Third, sweet.tv actively blocks most VPNs, so it’s the one service where the provider you pick really matters. As always, a VPN reaches a service you’re entitled to — your own Megogo or sweet.tv account — never a pirate stream, which we don’t point you toward.
How to watch, step by step
For news it’s instant; for the entertainment, about four minutes:
- 1Start with the free news (no VPN)
For news, open Suspilne’s or the United News telethon’s YouTube channels — they stream free worldwide, including English and Russian feeds, with no VPN. If news is all you want, you’re done.
- 2For entertainment, get a VPN with a Ukraine server
For Megogo’s full catalogue, sweet.tv, Kyivstar TV or 1+1, you need a Ukrainian IP. NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN and CyberGhost all have Ukraine (Kyiv) servers — see the picks below.
- 3Connect to Ukraine
Open the VPN app, sign in and connect to the Ukraine (Kyiv) location. You now have a Ukrainian IP, so Ukrainian services treat you as a local viewer.
- 4Open the app and play
Launch Megogo, sweet.tv, Kyivstar TV or 1+1 video, sign in, choose what you want and press play. If a stream won’t load, switch to another Ukraine server and reload — and for sweet.tv, use ExpressVPN.
Which VPNs work
The job is a reliable Ukraine (Kyiv) server with the speed for HD — and, for sweet.tv, one that gets past its VPN blocking. From our testing, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN and CyberGhost all offer Ukrainian IPs, with ExpressVPN the most reliable for the awkward sweet.tv. Our top three:
See the full picks in our best VPN for streaming ranking, and our overall best VPN for Ireland ranking has the all-round picks.