Larysa Rusnak, the well-known actress and TV presenter, recalled in an interview with Wave RBC.UA (citing a Styler piece) nearly two decades of work on the popular lottery show “Loto-Zabava.” In her words, the project, which viewers called a “factory of millionaires,” became for her not just a job but an entire chapter of life that ended unexpectedly and painfully. The actress admitted that the reason for her departure from the show was never explained to her.

18 years in the “factory of millionaires”

Rusnak emphasized that she came to television not with a specific goal in mind — she simply wanted to try something new. “Just a desire to try something new. It turned into 18 years,” she explained. The presenter noted that live broadcasts required constant concentration: she had to work with several cameras, see the people in the studio, and relearn the script each time. It was precisely this regularity — going on air every Sunday — that shaped her recognizable image for millions of viewers.

An image that got in the way in film

According to the actress, the popularity of the TV project even hindered her in film for a while. Viewers had grown so used to seeing her every Sunday that it was hard for her to shake off the presenter's image. “There was a period when people recognized me only because of that: every Sunday your face is on screen, you can't help but remember it,” Rusnak recalled. To move away from her familiar image, she deliberately took on dramatic roles, including playing women dependent on alcohol. “But over time it passed, just like everything in life,” she noted.

Sudden dismissal and “retirement” watch

The most painful thing for Larysa was how her work on the project ended. In her words, the decision was sudden: one day she was simply told that she would no longer be the host. “They just told me: ‘That's it, you're no longer hosting.’ Suddenly, in a single day. It was very painful,” the actress said. She also recalled a symbolic gift she received after being let go: “They even gave me a watch, like to a retiree. It felt like a consolation prize.” One of the hosts, she said, was kept, while they began looking for young women to replace her. “I decided then that I'd have to slowly ‘crawl to the graveyard,’” Rusnak recalled.

The civic stance version

Journalists also asked the actress about the version that she may have been removed from the project because of her civic stance, allegedly at odds with the management's views. Rusnak neither confirmed nor denied this assumption: “I don't know, no one ever told me. Maybe yes, maybe no.” At the same time, today she speaks of success not through the lens of popularity or the number of TV projects, but through the opportunity to realize herself in her profession: “The opportunity to realize yourself, to do as much as you want in your profession.”

Contradictory data

The sources contain a discrepancy in the length of Rusnak's work on the project. The main interview text and the Styler piece point to 18 years on “Loto-Zabava,” while the headline of the kp.ua publication phrases the actress's departure as “after 20 years on air.” Thus, the exact figure — 18 or 20 years — does not match across open sources, and the editorial team presents both versions. In addition, the version of a dismissal due to civic stance remains unconfirmed: the actress herself neither refuted nor confirmed it, noting that no one ever explained the reason for the decision to her.