Today America celebrates. Its sky blooms with fireworks, and the streets breathe freedom, won back in 1776 — freedom that has become not only a political act but a deep state of the national soul. There, across the ocean, Independence Day is music echoing from windows, flags fluttering in the wind, children who do not know what air raid sirens are. But here, in Ukraine, this day is not about celebration, but about endurance. In our sky, there are no fireworks, but drones that buzz like ominous wasps, bringing death on their black wings. In our land, there are no fireworks, but craters from missiles that break the silence like a scream in a temple. Yet even in this darkness, we do not fade away. We carry within us a light that is not subject to explosions.
For independence is not a date on the calendar, not a protocol, and not a slogan. It is the quiet stubbornness to live when you are being broken. It is the ability to remain yourself when you are being erased. It is when you create, even when around you are ruins. When you paint QR codes that lead not only to information but to identity. When you write poems that contain not tears but dignity. When you create NFTs that pulse with the soul of a nation. America has proven: freedom is possible. Ukraine proves: it must be fought for every day. And we fight — not only with weapons but with words, art, memory.
We do not celebrate today, but we dream. About the day when over Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, over the whole country — there will be not an alarm but music. When the word 'independence' will not be a dream but a reality. When we will be able to say: we did not just endure — we became ourselves. And then our Independence Day will not be about the past but about the future. About how a people that has gone through fire has learned to shine.
