The article analyzes the most commonly used foreign-language lexical items in the language of modern Ukrainian mass media. The objective of the article is to study the thematic direction of foreign-language lexical items, to determine their stylistic role, as well as to indicate the instability of spelling of certain borrowings. The descriptive method and method of observation are used as the main ones in the scientific research for the study of lexical items in the language of Ukrainian periodicals of the beginning of the XXI century. At different stages of the research, the method of functional analysis was used to determine the stylistic meaning of lexical items. The foreign-language words are an integral part of Ukrainian vocabulary, due to some extralin factors, such as Ukraine’s course towards European integration, the process of globalization, economy restructuring, orientation towards the countries of the West, that have caused the close cultural, political, and social and economic cooperation of the Ukrainians with other nations. As the language of modern mass media shows, the borrowings get into various scopes of society: economic, social and political, scientific, cultural, educational, communication, everyday life etc. Due to the active borrowing of foreign-language lexical items, we can have a threatening linguistic situation: functioning of doublets in the language, increasing the number of unwanted homonyms, borrowing of proper names without translation, borrowing of words that aim at imitating something different. The borrowings in the Ukrainian language have often different spelling, which proves the instability of spelling and requires further scientific researches.