Threads of Resilience: Ukraine’s Cultural Fight After Three Years of War
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
—John F. Kennedy
If our fellow democracies are not secure, we cannot be secure. If you are threatened, we’re threatened. If you’re not at peace, we cannot be at peace. An attack on you is an attack on us.
—Ronald Reagan
3 Years of War
These photos were made while making my upcoming film, “Bone and Thread.” While making the film, one of my goals was to live as normal a life in Kyiv as possible to illustrate how life and culture persevere. The “Mosaic of War” was never meant to be an exhaustive photo essay. Most of the photos were taken on an iPhone—because it is the tool most people use to capture their daily lives, I felt it was the most honest way to document mine during my four trips to Ukraine.
The mixture of civility and spectre of the most savage brutality are a constant. To put this into perspective, if Kyiv were New York City then the distance from Bucha to Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, is comparable to the distance from Bayside, Queens to City Hall. The atrocities that happened on the outskirts of Kyiv came…THAT CLOSE.
The relentless destruction that defines daily life in Ukraine is matched only by the people’s steadfast preservation of their culture and identity — a thread that weaves through this mosaic. When peace, a Just Peace, finally arrives, It’s Ukraine’s that will form the foundation of the nation’s future and reinvigorate all of our respective democracies.
Civility in Darkness
This is a war about heritage. It’s not only a war for our territory or for wide political goals. It’s a war against our memory, historical memory. It’s a war against our identity. Against our culture. And, of course, a war against our future.
Ihor Poshyvailo, Director of the Maidan Museum
Despite nightly bombings, people go to the gym, eat at restaurants, and attend cultural events. The daily narrative we receive often chases the most violent extremes at the frontlines, and while this coverage is essential, it also does a disservice—it leaves people without a true understanding of what Ukraine is about. Though the war has slipped from the headlines, life in Kyiv remains extreme in its own way: a civilized city, relentlessly bombarded, enduring a reality that no other metropolitan city would tolerate. A version of 9/11 happens every day in Kyiv.
This short was recorded on the evening of the largest bombing campaign at that point in the war, in November 2022. Since then, there have been many more ‘largest bombings.’ That night, Kyiv was without electricity, running water, or heat, just as the first snow began to fall. In response, many turned to their culture, embracing it as a source of strength to endure the long, dark night.
Index of Destruction
The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have someone write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was.
—Milan Kundera
The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications reports that 1,333 cultural heritage sites have been damaged or destroyed across Ukraine.
UNESCO has verified damage to 343 cultural sites as of February 2024, including 31 museums, 127 religious sites, 151 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, 19 monuments, 14 libraries, and one archive.
The destruction extends beyond heritage sites to cultural infrastructure. 2,185 cultural infrastructure facilities have been affected, with 409 completely destroyed.
Bone & Thread
It was important to my parents to pass down Ukrainian culture and history to us. They were afraid that Ukraine would lose its culture, because the Soviet Union was conducting Russification….I firmly believe that art heals and unites people. It connects me to the history of my family, to my Ukrainian roots, and it compels me to take action and reminds me of my duty to keep the culture alive.
—Ola Rondiak
My upcoming film features the artist Ola Rondiak and her seminal work, what she calls, “contemporary art with a historical conscience” exploring four generations of maternal lineage and how history intertwines with the current conflict.. Without works such as hers, there would be no robust defense of the nation because what this work does is set historical precedent, giving people a kind of cultural DNA with which to defend themselves.
Art becomes a profound tool in combating the earliest ambitions of genocidal intent. If individuals or communities fail to define themselves, they risk being defined by others. This is why artists are some of the first to be rounded up. However, when artists assert their identity through creative expression, communities and entire nations resist erasure. Art proclaims: “I am who I am—you have no agency over am.”
When I was in Kyiv as the city was being bombed, the prime target was civilian infrastructure that left millions without heat electricity and running water. Russian intent was to literally freeze millions to death. During that time history acted as a kind of antibody to the savagery that was visited upon this civilized and cultured city. People I spoke with said ,“We have seen this before and survived through it. By knowing our history we can see the genocidal intent of this current war and defend against it.”That is why the invading belligerents try so hard to destroy culture and the memory associated with it, and that is why the citizens of this nation will never relinquish it and are fighting as they are through such terrible hardship.
Art gives people a kind of cultural DNA with which to defend themselves. Ola’s art in particular serves as a visual chronicle of Ukrainian resilience over generations and centuries where one persons strength is passed onto the next, weaving together symbols, traditions, and personal narratives and finally influencing the national and even global narrative of democratic prerogatives. This artistic lineage creates a tangible connection to the past, reinforcing a sense of shared identity and purpose. By embedding historical struggles and triumphs into her work, Ola provides a cultural touchstone that reminds Ukrainians of their enduring spirit and collective strength.
