This weekend I adventured my way through cathedrals, world war 2 museums and the fresh wounds of the Ukraine Revolution. I remember this moment 4 years ago fairly clearly.
I remember being in my sorority house television room watching the news about the peaceful protests of the president in power that turned into an all out brutal fight between the Ukrainian people vs. the police and the government. And I remember Russia swooping out of nowhere and taking control of Crimea.
But I never imagined that 4 years later I would be walking the streets of Kyiv, Ukraine where it all took place. I never knew the details. I never knew the cause, the longevity, the extreme perseverance and heroism of its citizens.
Ukraine’s hope was to align with the European Union, to become more like Western Europe and turn away from past ties with Russia. However, their president, while promising EU agreements with the west, was secretly making deals with Russia. I spent the majority of my adventure day in silence, taking in the history, attempting to imagine the reality of these people during those 3 long months, and questioning my own bravery. Would I, at a not-so-ripe age of 24 years be willing to stand toe to toe with war?
Or would I cower away and look to others to fight for what I wanted?
Maidan Square, the main point of protest for the Ukrainian people, now refurbished and for the most part unrecognizable of the damage done, felt …heavy, for lack of a better word.
However, the places oozes with remnants of the courage and boldness of the people. You can just feel it.
It lingers.
On the north side of the square, a large banner hangs from the length of a building still recovering from the crossfire. The banner reads, “FREEDOM IS OUR RELIGION”. The building’s main purpose during the Revolution was to be a medical clinic for the wounded. It held all medical equipment including medicine and aid that had been shipped in from all over the country, but the police chained up its doors and lit the place on fire. I’m amazed at the courage of this country. Only receiving freedom and independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, it refuses to live under oppression once again.
Although the people represented during those 93 days of protest and war were from several different generations, many of them were college students, early 20 year olds who were standing up for what the generations before them fought so hard for them to have:
FREEDOM.
Many of them from different backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, and age groups, yet all united under one goal:
FREEDOM.
And they stood together, shoulder to shoulder each of them believing that the future of the nation, the future of their future children’s lives, and the future of their OWN lives were worth risking in order to keep standing up for the freedom they worked so hard to receive:
FREEDOM idealized by ANTICORRUPTION.
Today, as I stand in Kyiv I can feel the pride of this nation.
Today, my heart goes out to the friends and families who lost 125+ heroic loved ones to the Revolution.
And today, my heart is in awe of the ones who stood on the front lines, took bullets to the face, took beatings from iron rods, and tear gas in order to fight for the future of their country. More often than not, freedom doesn’t come in a singular instance. We’d be naive to believe that’s the reality. It takes extreme perseverance and persecution. But many times it starts with just a pebble in the water– A pebble who’s ripple effect is stronger than the initial impact itself.
But someone’s got to be willing to make a change, and that’s exactly what Ukraine is choosing.
FREEDOM IS OUR RELIGION.
Every tongue, every tribe, every nation.
**If you are unfamiliar with the history of the Ukraine Revolution, check out the “Winter on Fire” documentary on Netflix.
