Kyiv e Ucrânia já estavam lá, quando nem Moscou nem Rússia sequer existiam - Viktor Kravchuk

 

Kyiv Was Here Before Moscow Was a Thought

A city of half a million mornings

VIKTOR KRAVCHUK MAY 31

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This morning, I watched a woman buying flowers near the metro.

Yellow ones.

I was close enough to hear her arguing a little about the price, just life pretending to be normal, I thought, and right after she walked away holding them against her body.

A few nights ago, that same metro station was full of people sleeping on the floor while war drones crossed the sky above our heads.

This morning, flowers.

I don’t know how to explain this city without sounding like I am inventing something, but I am not.

This is Kyiv.

This city gets attacked, the windows shake, people lose sleep, and then someone still wakes up and decides that yellow flowers belong to a table.

This is the city that is turning 1,544 years old today.

I was not born here.

I came to this capital the way you come to a person you did not plan to love. A little unsure, a little strange, carrying my own confusion with me.

Now I cannot find the point where my life ends and this city begins.

Kyiv was here before Moscow was a thought.

Before there was anything called “Russia.”

Before so many men came with flags, armies, maps, speeches, and that old belief that if they destroyed enough buildings, they could own the souls inside them.

They never could.

Historians can keep the dates. I keep the mornings.

The woman with the flowers did not know she was teaching me anything. She just wanted something bright to take home.

But I stood there and understood that this is the whole war, reduced to one ordinary purchase.

Russia wants this city afraid.

She bought flowers.

Russia wants every day here to belong to death.

She chose something for the table.

That is Kyiv’s answer.

People are posting cakes today with the number 1,544. Every empire that wanted this city gone, the Horde, the Nazis, the Soviet machine, is gone now. The Ukrainians are the ones with candles.

Somewhere tonight, a family may go down into a shelter again.

And somewhere above them, on a kitchen table, yellow flowers will wait in the dark.

Waiting for the woman to come back.

Waiting for the morning.

How old is your city? It may be younger than this one, or much older, but whatever the number, you have one.

A place you know in the dark, a place that holds the truest version of you.

Kyiv is that to me.

The only thing these four years changed is that now I count the mornings.

Four years of 1,544.

A city of more than half a million mornings.

And it will not be Russia who takes the next one from us.

Happy birthday, Kyiv.

And I am still learning how to live here with enough love to deserve you.

—Viktor

🇺🇦

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There's no team here. Just me, in Ukraine, four years in. I keep this open to everyone and always will. Paid subscribers are the guardians who keep it that way. Stand with them, or read for free, you belong here either way.

Why Ukraine Matters to Me, 3 VIKTOR KRAVCHUK

 Why Ukraine Matters to Me, 3

VIKTOR KRAVCHUK
AUG 9, 2025
This is part 3 of our three-part series called Why Ukraine Matters.

Why Ukraine Matters to Humanity, 1
VIKTOR KRAVCHUK·
AUG 4
Read full story: https://substack.com/redirect/e6108b20-0699-4bc1-b63f-3cd6a9794888?j=eyJ1IjoiOG1hOTIifQ.cIj3zdxxgLAE0Kc2Pv6DJk4AEqMTg7YdnfnuGKbdL0Y

Why Ukraine Matters to You, 2
VIKTOR KRAVCHUK
AUG 7
Read full story: https://substack.com/redirect/8850ffb1-df73-45f5-8b13-57fe0f562efe?j=eyJ1IjoiOG1hOTIifQ.cIj3zdxxgLAE0Kc2Pv6DJk4AEqMTg7YdnfnuGKbdL0Y

This one today is the easiest and the hardest at the same time, but let’s say it before I overthink and let it slip away…

PART III- WHY UKRAINE MATTERS TO ME

I have said so many times I am here because of freedom and democracy.

Said those words so many times that I’ve worn them out, and every time I write them again I feel something weird.

Something like I should not be repeating things that so obvious and so tangible.

And I am tired.

So tired that I saw myself wondering if there’s a way to just give Russia some of our land and stop this hell.

But then I think of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a man who carries a strength I don’t have.

How he holds the weight when so many of us can barely stand.

And then I remember that this is not for me.

Not even for my family or my child I haven’t seen in years.

It’s for the ones whose names I’ll never know.

The ones who carried my blood before Ukraine even had a name on a map.

Before our language was written, but already spoken in fields and kitchens.

It’s for the Cossack warriors who carried the dream of a free Ukraine across the centuries.

It’s for the poets and philosophers who wrote our soul into existence and died for it.

For Vasyl Stus, who died in a prison colony because he dared to believe in Ukraine.

For Taras Shevchenko, who carried our heart in his poems when it was illegal to even speak it.

It’s for those who defied the language bans and the book burnings.

Also for all those prison cells that held our best and brightest just for loving their own land.

It’s important to remember every single day that I grew up in the ashes of those fights.

The ashes from all of them, who were already fighting the same enemy, already defending the simple right of existence.

They died for this land.

The land our invaders say is not real.

But it’s here. I see it, breathe it.

I live it.

Even when so many can’t, because they are far from home, or because they will never open their eyes again.

This land is not just under my feet.

It’s inside me.

It’s not an idea.

It’s me.

I am them, all those ancestors.

I am the dream they carried.

That’s why I’m still here.

I carry inside me generations of people who paid with their lives for the right to belong to this land.

For the dream that Ukraine would matter.

And it does.

That’s why Ukraine matters to me too.

—Viktor

🔖 This journal lives thanks to the support of the readers.

Why Ukraine Matters to You, 2 - VIKTOR KRAVCHUK

 Why Ukraine Matters to You, 2

VIKTOR KRAVCHUK
AUG 7, 2025

This is part 2 of our three-part series called Why Ukraine Matters.

Because we’ve already been “too long” in the headlines, and this is the right time for us to remember why this country matters.

The first part was about “us,” about humanity as a whole, but this one is about you.

Why Ukraine Matters to Humanity
VIKTOR KRAVCHUK
AUG 4
Read full story:
https://diplomatizzando.blogspot.com/2025/08/why-ukraine-matters-to-us-fight-for.html

Because you’re here reading this, and it means this war reached you.

Maybe you felt something shift inside that you couldn’t name it, but you just knew it mattered.

You had the impression that something in this fight belongs to you. And you’re right, because it really does.

PART II- WHY UKRAINE MATTERS TO YOU

You don’t have to be Ukrainian to carry Ukraine in you.
But you already knew I would say that.

You carry our flag, you have the sticker, you talk about Ukraine with your friends and family, you send me those beautiful messages every day here…

Ukraine is part of your mind. Part of your life. But it didn’t come from politics or values you consciously chose.

The reason Ukraine matters to you goes deeper than you think. About who you are before you even think about what you would choose to think.

Ukraine is a reflection of you.

We are what lives most viscerally inside you.

It’s not what you “believe” is worth defending, but what your humanity indicates is the right way to go before you could even elaborate it logically.

I’m not saying that your support is merely emotional. Of course there’s a lot of emotions involved, love and hate, for example, at their extremes.

But what I’m trying to name is something that precedes your own emotions.

Something beneath belief, beneath logic. Something like a kind of “instinctual knowing,” the place inside you that reacts before thought arrives.

The part of you that would defend your child before you knew what was happening.

The part of you that doesn’t wait to decide whether it’s “worth it.”

The purest level of your nature. The one you always return to even when you don’t want to look.

I am trying to say that Ukraine does not matter to you on the grounds that you are a generous person.

You definitely are, of course.

But we are not having this talk for so long simply because you show virtuous qualities.

What moves you is that there’s something inside you that knows that standing by our side is a matter of self-preservation.

By instinct.

Just like the mothers have it to hold their children safe no matter what.

Every mother in nature, every species.

There’s nothing more sacred. Life is the reason we resist, the reason we endure.

And when you see what is happening in Ukraine, you don’t sympathize with us because we look brave.

This isn’t because you like our colors, our sunflowers, our watermelons. Not even for our courage.

You’re with us because your instinct tells you that we are the right side in this insanity.

Something inside you knows what Russia represents today.

And you don’t need to see our ruins to know they’re openly destroying the world we all need to live in.

The world where life is still something sacred.

Where we raise our children with hope and we’re allowed to imagine a future.

Where life is still worth living.

Ukraine matters to you because we are still fighting for that future.
For the only possible future.
For life.
For your life.

For a life in a world where we will be anxious to live the next day, offering the best of ourselves and our talents to the planet, not just merely survive.

For the only possible version of life, which is when love deals the cards.

You know that the only thing you will leave after you die is the love you carry today.

Just as we know that too.

Instinctively.

You don’t carry Ukraine in your heart because you decided to.

You carry it because we were already there even before you had the chance to choose.

Everything only to explain why Ukraine matters to you:

It matters because Ukraine is you.

Ukraine is your instinct to protect what still deserves to live.

Ukraine matters to you because you recognize the line between what protects life and what poisons it.

You don’t stand with us because we’re brave.

You stand with us because you are.

And if every revolution starts inside us, then we are in a good place.

People like you are the reason we still have a chance.

If there's still hope, it's thanks to people like you.

Why Ukraine Matters to Us: The fight for humanity - VIKTOR KRAVCHUK

Why Ukraine Matters to Us

The fight for humanity

VIKTOR KRAVCHUK AUG 4

Now I’d like to make something different here: this is part 1 of a three-part series called Why Ukraine Matters.

So much is happening in the world, so many conflicts, so many dangerous people rising to power in their countries, it’s natural that Ukraine falls behind in the world’s headlines and attention.

It’s understandable. Everything today is so immediate, we’ve already been “too long” in the headlines. 

But I’ll do exactly what you would do if you were in my place: writing and writing about your reality so no one forgets. Or at least, so that the forgetting happens a little slower.

This journal is my attempt. And I think after 3 years and half, this is the right time for us to revisit why Ukraine matters.

Why this country is important to the world and must be defended. 

In three dimensions. Three parts.

This time I want to elaborate why Ukraine matters to all of us.

To us, as humanity.

PART I - WHY UKRAINE MATTERS TO US

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Russia is not attacking a country.

This is not an attack against Ukraine.

It is an attack on the idea that people get to live free.

An attack on the belief that a nation belongs to its people.

The right to build a future. To raise a child. To survive without fear and dignity.

This is not new for you, and if it gave you the impression of everything that reflects the most human parts of ourselves, both as society and as individuals, you were correct.

This is a war where one nation is denying another the ability to exercise their humanity.

And that’s why it is precisely a war against humanity.

Humanity, people made of flesh and bones, dreams and fears, everywhere. Here and there. Independent from borders or languages.

I am not even talking about good and bad, evil or virtuous.

I am talking about the right to be human.

Russia is denying us our right to be human enough to choose virtue or evil.

We wouldn’t choose to be evil anyway, because we have seen so much of what evil represents since Russia has chosen it throughout all their history.

But now they are denying us the chance to choose what we think right to be. What direction of humanity we would choose.

And God forbids we as a people ever choose evil someday, but we need to have the right to choose because there’s no “better” good, no “better” virtue, than the one we choose freely, knowing the evil we could have chosen but consciously decided to turn away.

The right to choose evil just to reject it. To throw in the trashcan of history the kind of nation a people could have become if they were part of a country called Russia.

Russia is not only a country embodied in evil. They want to go further. Their goal is to rewrite what it means to be human.

They want to rewrite the world. To change the basic values of our civilization.

Their objective is to make acceptable attacks to places where innocent life was hiding and places that were never supposed to be ‘strategic’ targets.

And then, they lie in an established script we have seen so many times:

They deny an attack happened, say there were ‘western weapons’ inside, call the dead “Nazis”, and, don’t be shocked, blame Ukraine for bombing itself.

This is a terrorist organization with a permanent seat at the U.N.

A century ago, another regime rose with symbols, slogans, scapegoats.

They used emotion, posters, fake history, the broadcasting possibilities of the time. Blamed minorities for everything. Offered unity through hatred, and promised peace while preparing for war.

They called it something very close to "making the nation great again."

And the slogan may sound familiar to you, but here I’m still talking about… Russia.

So curious, isn’t?

The similarities are so starking. They spread lies and wrap them in patriotism. They stage mass rallies, blame the weak... 

The foreigner.

The neighbor.

And telling their own people they are victims, at the same time they turn them into weapons.

What was done with pamphlets in the 1930’’s is now done with bots, trolls, and nuclear threats.

Russia is all in. This time it’s all or nothing for them. 

They don’t know how to exist in a world where diplomacy and rules are how nations relate to one another.

They want to submit the world to their own concepts of “understanding,” which is, of course, something that only makes sense in their sick minds.

The same minds bragging about “tradition” and “values” in the branches of the empire of lies spread across TV channels, Telegram groups, and every platform they control.

Russia wants to redefine what it means to be good.

To make domination seem logical.

To make compassion look weak.

To turn strength into cruelty, and cruelty into law.

They want to make you forget what being human ever meant.

This is why Ukraine matters to every single human being on this planet.

Again, what kind of world are we leaving to the humans of the future?

How might the world look today if enough of us, long ago, had chosen to look away from the threat that came from that certain man in Central Europe?

Now, we have another edition of that. A fight of those who are still choosing to be human.

Even under all bombs and the risk of the world getting tired of hearing from us, we are firm on that. Making our part.

For the survival of a country, and of a concept of civilization.

That choice is costing us lives, but if we don’t make it, the world they want will win.

The world of a new project of “humanity.”

Not just here. Everywhere.

And it’s simply not an option for any one of us.

Would You Be Ready to Meet Putin? - Viktor Kravchuk

Would You Be Ready to Meet Putin?

Zelenskyy won’t walk in with hope. He’s walking in with dignity.

VIKTOR KRAVCHUK
MAY 11, 2025

WOULD YOU WALK INTO A ROOM with the man who tried to destroy everything you love?

Would you sit across from the one who denied your very existence, while the people you swore to protect were still being killed?

Would you call that diplomacy?

Zelenskyy will. This Thursday.

In Turkey.

Face to face with Putin.

While the missiles still fall.

Our president asked for one thing. A ceasefire. Full. Unconditional. Real.

He didn’t ask for land. He didn’t ask for leverage. He asked for the violence to stop, just long enough to talk.

But Russia answered with 104 drones in one night, and they struck our cities while pretending to think about peace.

In Sumy, three more civilians died.

In Kyiv, well, same story. 3 years now.

Putin says he’s ready for talks.

But his idea of “talking” usually starts with a funeral.

Sometimes the person he meets becomes the next.

It’s one of the most dangerous things a human being can do. To meet the monster, while the monster still has the knife in his hand.

We’ve seen this story before.

Russia makes a promise. Breaks it. Lies about it. Then blames us for bleeding.

You know what this is.

Russia doesn’t want peace. It wants obedience.

It wants the photo, the quote, the illusion of reason.

And when it doesn’t get what it wants, it kills.


Still, Zelenskyy said yes.

“I’ll be there. Personally.”
“We expect a full ceasefire, starting now.”
“I hope Putin doesn’t find excuses this time.”

But Putin will find the excuses. He always does.

He doesn’t show up to talk. He shows up to stall. He shows up to control the script.

If he shows up at all.

But someone has to be in the room. Someone has to carry hope in, even when it might not come back out.

That’s not trust. That’s leadership.

Because Russia doesn’t talk. Russia deceives.

Every time we’ve met them at the table, they brought war in their pocket.

They signed “peace agreements” while printing maps for the next invasion. They pretended to listen, only to turn around and deny our right to exist.

Putin said Ukraine was a fiction. He said we were not real.

That this country did not deserve to stand.

So tell me, how do you negotiate with someone who doesn’t even believe you’re a person?

But at the same time, what choice do we have?

We are being attacked by the largest country on Earth.

A nation that covers one-seventh of the world’s surface, fueled by a fantasy of empire and backed silently, strategically, completely, by China.

Not loudly. But you know. We all do.

That’s not one enemy. That’s nearly two billion people, under regimes that see our democracy as a virus they must kill before it spreads.

And then there’s America.

A country that once led the free world, and now sadly needs to bow to a man who jokes about war crimes, calls our President a coward from behind a golf cart, and get applauded for that.

Trump.

The most cynical leader I’ve seen in my lifetime.

The kind who sells you out before breakfast, then blames the waiter for the price.

A man who will praise Putin for strength and mock Zelenskyy for courage.

That’s what cowards do when they see real courage.

They try to destroy it.

Because it reminds them of everything they are not.

So here we are.

Outnumbered. Surrounded. Lied to. And still, we go to Turkey.

We ask for a ceasefire. We say, “Let’s talk.”

Even when we know they probably won’t listen.

Even when we know they’ve used meetings like this before to regroup. To reload. To kill.

Even when we know the moment we pause, they’ll push harder.

Still. We go.

Because that’s what Ukrainians do.


Would you ever be ready to meet a man like Putin?

Could you sit across from the man who tried to bomb your country off the map, and still ask for peace?

Could you carry the weight of three years of war into that room, knowing that any handshake might be a setup?

Could you do that while your people are still being buried and and the sky above you is still screaming?

Because that’s what Zelenskyy is doing.

And whatever happens Thursday, history will remember that.

He’ll be there. Waiting.

What would you feel if your President walked into a room like that for you?

Because he is.

And not just for Ukraine.

But for every person who still believes peace is worth fighting for.

Or every nation that still holds democracy as a value we don’t have the option to give up.

This is about how we keep standing, even when so much of the world tells us to sit still.

You’re not just reading this.

You stayed.

You felt it.

You know that Zelenskyy is going to meet the monster for you, too.

That means you’re here. With us.

In attention. In memory.

In whatever part of you refused to walk away.

Thanks for not walking away.

Trump está servilmente a serviço de Putin, não só na Ucrânia, mas principalmente na Ucrânia - Viktor Kravchuk

A Ceasefire of Shame

A deal written in cowardice, signed in blood

VIKTOR KRAVCHUK MAR 18

They talked about Ukraine, but Ukraine wasn’t at the table. They spoke of peace, but the bombs kept falling.

They called it a ceasefire, but it’s nothing more than a gift to a war criminal.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had their little phone call, their moment of mutual admiration. Trump, a convicted felon. Putin, a wanted war criminal. And together, they came to an agreement: a ceasefire that Ukraine never asked for, that Ukraine was never even consulted on.

As they spoke, Ukraine was under massive missile attack. This is the "result" of their negotiations.

Trump calls it peace. But do you call it peace when entire families are buried under rubble? When stolen Ukrainian children are still trapped in Russia, renamed, brainwashed, erased? When the invader still occupies your home, your city, your country?

That is not peace. That is submission.

Trump says the war "should never have started", as if it was some tragic accident. As if Ukraine had a choice in whether its cities were bombed, its women raped, its people abducted. 

The war didn’t merely "start." Russia attacked. Putin attacked.

And now Trump wants to reward him with a deal. Not a deal for Ukraine. Not a deal for justice. A deal for Putin, so he can stabilize his economy, sell his gas, stockpile his weapons, and prepare for the next round of war.

Can you believe that?

A ceasefire doesn’t mean Russian troops leave. It doesn’t mean war criminals face trial. It doesn’t mean justice for Bucha, for Mariupol, for every city turned to rubble by Russian bombs.

It means Russia gets time. Time to regroup, time to rearm, time to prepare for another slaughter, another invasion, another genocide.

Because let’s take things clear: this is a war of extermination.

Russia doesn’t just want land. It wants Ukraine erased. Our culture, our people, our history. Russia wants Ukraine to stop existing.

And Trump, whether through cowardice or corruption, probably both, is handing Putin exactly what he wants.

Trump’s plan is simple: protect Russian oil and gas so Putin can keep funding his war. 

Not a word about returning abducted Ukrainian children. Not a word about stopping Russian missile strikes on civilians. Not a word about justice for those tortured in the occupied territories.

Because this was never about peace. It was about business.

About "huge economic deals." About Trump’s personal interests.

About the wealthy few who stand to profit from Russian gas, from war, from suffering.

The mask is off. There is no diplomacy, no neutrality here. This is Trump openly doing Putin’s bidding, propping up a dictator who has spent the last 25 years waging war, silencing dissent, assassinating opponents, killing anyone who stands in his way.

We don’t need a ceasefire. We need Russian troops out of Ukraine.

We need war criminals on trial in The Hague. We need the return of every stolen Ukrainian child.

A ceasefire without withdrawal is surrender. Would you call it peace if an intruder broke into your home, killed your family, stole your belongings, then sat down at your table and told you to move on?

A ceasefire without justice tells every dictator that war crimes work. 

That genocide is just a phase of war, not a crime.

A ceasefire without Ukraine at the table is an insult. As if Ukraine is some distant land, not a country of millions of people fighting for their lives.

No, we will not accept a "peace" that lets Russia keep its stolen land, its mass graves, its war crimes. 

No, we will not pretend that Trump and Putin are negotiating peace when they are simply negotiating how best to carve up a nation that refuses to die.

They are making their choices. To accept occupation, to let war crimes go unpunished. But we also need to make our choice. 

We have already chosen to fight.

If this were your land, what choice would you make?

The war that money can’t buy - Viktor Kravchuk

 

The war that money can’t buy Trump can hold the funds, but he will never manage to hold us down VIKTOR KRAVCHUK MAR 4 , 2025 WHAT IF MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING in life, but to those who have built their empires on greed, nothing exists beyond wealth? Ukraine has never been a country that moves for money. We have survived without it, with nothing but our will to endure. For centuries. But those who worship greed are not able to see this. They cannot understand the concept of a nation standing for something greater than profit. The greedy do not understand the concept of dignity. They believe everything has a price because their own souls were bought long ago. I am not here to talk about geopolitics. I am not here to talk about news. I am here to tell you about the Ukrainian soul and the Ukrainian spirit. About what it means to be Ukrainian in these days when our lives seem to be measured by business transactions. I'm here to talk about that father from a village wiped off the map by Russian missiles, who stood in the wreckage of his home, clutching the only thing he managed to save: a photograph of his children. The roof and the walls had collapsed, but he stayed. He did not run. He did not beg. Instead, he started rebuilding with his bare hands. No one paid him to do it. No one promised him a reward. He did it because this is his home. Because this is Ukraine. And yet, some in the West dare to speak of money. As if our survival is something to be bought and sold. As if our resistance has a price tag. Ukraine is not a country that moves for money. We move for dignity. For decades, we have survived poverty and hardship with our heads held high. We have built our lives in circumstances most would call impossible. We have raised children in the shadows of genocide and occupation. We have cared for our elders when their homes were turned to dust. Money has nothing to do with this. But the greediest of the world, the ones who see this planet only in terms of profit and loss, will never understand this. They ask, How much is Ukraine worth? We ask, What is the price of freedom? There is no man on Earth more consumed by greed than Donald Trump. It is his lifeblood, his purpose, his identity. He built an empire on it. He boasts about it. He takes pride in seeing the world as a transaction, where the only thing that matters is what can be bought. Now, he looks at Ukraine’s suffering and asks, Why should we pay? But here’s what Trump will never understand: Ukraine is not fighting because of money. Ukraine is fighting because we refuse to kneel. While Trump counts money, Ukrainians count the ones we’ve buried. If the West turns away, we will still fight. If the money stops flowing, we will still stand. Because this is not about aid. This is not about economics.  This is about survival. Donald Trump sees everything through money because that is all he knows. That is the world he has built for himself. He is a man whose empire is made of greed, whose legacy is the glorification of self-interest. So when he looks at Ukraine, he is blind to everything that truly matters. Trump and Putin are the same kind of men. They believe everything is for sale because they have never fought for anything greater than themselves. They will never understand why a mother risks her life to bring her child to school, even when the school is half-destroyed by bombs. They will never understand why a teacher continues to teach in the ruins, writing lessons on broken walls. They will never understand why a soldier, out of ammunition, still stands his ground, because surrender is worse than death. They will never understand that there are things in this world that cannot be bought. We will resist with or without the money of the world's wealthiest. Because our strength does not come from dollars. It comes from something no amount of money can buy. It comes from the unshakable will of a people who refuse to bow. Trump can cut his money. The greedy can turn their backs. But Ukraine will not fall. Because this war was never about dollars. It was never about negotiations. It was never about business deals. It was always about dignity. And dignity is something the greedy will never recognize. Our dignity is something that even the greediest person on Earth will never manage to destroy. 🔖 If you believe in supporting Ukraine’s fight for its future and my words resonate with you, please consider a paid subscription. Your support keeps this work independent, sustainable, and accessible to all, ensuring Ukraine’s voice is heard when it matters most. 📖 The Divine Comedian: Ukraine’s Journey Through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise is more than a book: it's my attempt to capture Ukraine’s unbreakable spirit in our darkest and brightest moments. If you want to see this war through the eyes of those who refuse to surrender, I invite you to read it.