Ukrainian TV host and journalist Alexey Sukhanov spoke candidly in a fresh interview with the entertainment project Styler (RBC-Ukraine) about his attitude toward death and what, in his belief, awaits a person after the end of their earthly journey. The host of the talk show "The Whole Country Speaks" on the "1+1 Ukraine" channel stated that death should not be a reason for constant fear, and that life on Earth itself is a kind of trial that everyone must go through in order to truly become human.

"Hell is empty, all the devils are here"

In response to a question about the fear of death, Sukhanov referred to the lines of William Shakespeare: "Yes, but what is there to fear in death? Shakespeare once wrote: 'Hell is empty, all the devils are here.'" According to the TV host, this phrase accurately reflects his personal position: instead of an irrational terror of the inevitable, he perceives death as a natural part of existence. His rhetoric contains no mysticism and no religious dogmatism — only a calm acceptance of the finitude of earthly being and a refusal to let fear play the role of a person's main "companion."

Earthly life as a "big prison"

Sukhanov spoke much more at length about what happens after death. He stated outright that he does not believe in heaven and hell in the usual, bookish sense. "I too believe that in reality there is no hell and no heaven, and we are all here in a big prison serving some kind of punishment for a previous life," the TV host said. This metaphor turns earthly existence into a period of correction: a person is not born a "human" in the full sense of the word, but merely a "human-like being" who must go through the path of becoming.

To become human, not merely to be born

The key idea that Sukhanov develops in his statement is the distinction between biological birth and spiritual "becoming." "Whoever becomes human (not one who is born a human-like being, but one who becomes human) passes through the punishment, serves it, and then, perhaps, somewhere Eden still exists," he explained. Thus, his view of death is inextricably linked to the concept of humanity: it is important not merely to appear in the world, but to live a life in such a way as to truly earn the right to be called human. Eden in his interpretation is not a guaranteed reward, but merely a "perhaps" existing next stage, available to those who have passed the earthly trial.

Context: Sukhanov's path from Ivanovo to a Kyiv studio

Alexey Sukhanov was born on January 4, 1974, in Ivanovo (Russian Federation). He began his media career on Russian radio and television, however in 2014 he left Russia, explaining his decision by his disagreement with the position of local media regarding the war against Ukraine. From 2012 to 2022 he hosted the talk show "Hovorytya Ukrayina" on the "Ukraina" TV channel, and from 2023 he moved to "1+1 Ukraine," where he hosts the social talk show "The Whole Country Speaks." After the start of the full-scale invasion, Sukhanov remained in Kyiv and joined the territorial defense of the capital. His philosophical statements about death and the meaning of life, made in the Styler interview, fit into the broader context of a public figure who, over decades in the Ukrainian media field, has formed a stable image of a "man who has walked his path."

Contradictory data

No significant factual contradictions on the topic of the interview were found in the provided sources. The only nuance: in the biographical note of Styler it is stated that Sukhanov hosted "Hovorytya Ukrayina" from 2012 to 2022, while his move out of Russia is dated to 2014. This means that the first two years of his work on Ukrainian television (2012–2014) fell on a period when he could still formally have held Russian citizenship or a dual status. However, the very fact of hosting the program on the "Ukraina" channel from 2012 is confirmed in the source text, and no additional discrepancies in dates or figures between the provided materials were found.