On Feb. 24, 2022, the Russian army began an invasion of Ukraine. The assault was meant to last three days—and this Monday, it entered its third year. The war has become a grim fact of life for millions of Ukrainians, and there remains no end in sight. With a death toll in the hundreds of thousands and rockets falling daily on Ukrainian cities, the war’s continuation is a bitter victory for Ukraine: the country remains free, but every day of fighting takes a tragic toll. To mark this milestone, the Ann Arbor chapter of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America (UNWLA) staged a vigil featuring Ukrainian songs and speeches that brought solidarity to the community in this bleak time.
By 5:40 pm on Feb. 24, 2025, a group of people had already begun to congregate and chatter in the central square of the Diag downtown. They wielded homemade signs with patriotic slogans, waved flags both Ukrainian and American, and wore banners wrapped around their shoulders. As people continued to arrive, old friends caught up, swapped stories, and prepared for the event. Christopher Taylor, the mayor of Ann Arbor, mingled with the crowd until proceedings officially began at 6:00.
The opening speech was given by Eugene Bondarenko, the master of ceremonies for the assembly. Instantly the mood sobered, and the speeches that followed were grim and fiery. Following a singing of the Ukrainian national anthem, a series of speakers took the podium to talk of the bravery and tragedy of the Ukrainian resistance. The crowd was quiet save for applause between speeches and the call-and-response battle cry: “Slava Ukraini! Heroiam slava!” After half an hour of speaking, the congregation marched to Burton Tower on Ingalls Mall for a carillon concert before the assembly dissolved for the night.
Vigils like this serve as a focal point for the Ukrainian community, allowing people of all walks of life to bond; They act as a platform for people to share their perspectives and personal stories of the war. In the face of prolonged suffering, they offer renewed faith, vigor, and strength to carry on.
In his position as conductor for the event, Bondarenko had the opportunity to choose the message to send and guide the gathering accordingly. A Ukrainian native and Russian language teacher, the struggle in Ukraine had been central to Bondarenko’s life for decades. In his view, it was crucial that the vigil expressed all sides of the war and allowed the people to speak of their own experiences however they wished. He sees uniting the community in their suffering as the only way to prevent the ultimate defeat: giving up.
“Three years into a war, there’s fatigue,” Bondarenko said. “Just because people are showing up and just because people are there doesn’t mean that they’re not exhausted. Russia’s ultimate goals hinge on the fact that people will simply get tired of fighting. Events like this kind of serve as a demonstration that, nope, they’re wrong.”
The vigil was not a merry occasion. The music was slow and somber, and the terrible realities of war loomed large over the event. However, Bondarenko still views the vigil as a success. The goal was not to comfort the community with uplifting lies, but to unite it through shared acceptance of the truth: the war is not going anywhere, but we’re going to get through it together.
