Children at the River Ikva, Rivne Oblast, Ukraine, 2018. 35mm film. Sonya Bilocerkowycz.

In 1890 the writer Lesya Ukrainka wrote an iconic Ukrainian poem about hoping regardless of the evidence in front of you. "No," she says, "through all my tears I still shall laugh, / Sing songs despite my troubles; / Have hope despite all odds, / I want to live!" The speaker in the poem describes the urge to plant flowers amid the frost and water them with "bitter tears."

Maybe, she speculates, the tears will be warm enough to melt snow. At the time Ukrainka was writing, Russian imperial policy had effectively banned the publishing of creative works in the Ukrainian language.

In 2022, as Russia engages in a war of terror against Ukraine, we stand with the Ukrainian people in their struggle for freedom. Ukrainians remind us that hope is itself an act of resistance.