Five years ago, on Aug. 24, 2021, independent Ukraine turned 30. I remember that Independence Day vividly — a big celebration in central Kyiv, the Antonov An-225 Mriya (the biggest airplane ever built) flying over Maidan Nezalezhnosti Square, flags everywhere, concerts, the feeling of pride, and also, the familiarity that comes with a holiday you've celebrated your whole life. Nobody I knew spent it bracing for anything.
Six months later, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and every Independence Day since has been different.
Today, independent Ukraine turns 35.
When I think about turning 35, I imagine it's the age when life begins to feel more settled. At 35, you know yourself a little better. You've made choices that shaped who you've become. You start looking less at who you could be, and more at who you are.
Thirty-five years isn't very old for an independent nation, especially one that was oppressed for so long — it's the time for discovering and rediscovering yourself, building institutions, arguing over politics, celebrating victories, making mistakes, and finding your place in the world. Countries don't grow up in quite the same way as people, but sometimes I wonder what kind of country Ukraine would be, if it had been given 35 years without Russia as a neighbor.
Instead, more than a third of Ukraine's life as an independent country has been spent defending its right to exist. Russia annexed Crimea and started the war in Donbas in 2014. Eight years later, it launched a full-scale invasion that the rest of the world couldn't look away from.
While that was the moment Ukraine began making front pages worldwide, our country's story didn't start with the war. The war interrupted it. It interrupted lives that were wonderfully ordinary — families planning vacations, students graduating, journalists chasing stories, people gathering on Independence Day to watch concerts and fireworks. Five years ago, when independent Ukraine celebrated its 30th anniversary, almost none of us imagined how different the next one would look.
But something else happened in those years, too. The war has tried to define Ukraine through destruction — through headlines about missiles, casualties, occupied cities.
Yet that's not the only story Ukrainians have chosen to tell about themselves.
Again and again, we have chosen democracy over fear, unity over division, hope over cynicism — not because it's easy, but because it's who we've decided to be. Identity isn't only shaped by what happens to you. It's shaped by the choices you make.
That's the country turning 35.
At the Kyiv Independent, we've spent the past five years documenting that story — not only the destruction Russia has brought, but the country that continues to emerge despite it.
We think Ukraine deserves to be understood on its own terms, in its own voice, not only as a battlefield, but as a nation still in the middle of becoming itself.
I think about that Independence Day five years ago a lot — the last one where we didn't know what was coming. This year, we know all too well. The day will be not just a celebration of our country, but a day to mourn those who died fighting for it, to feel grateful for those who continue to fight, and to remind ourselves that, despite the odds, we are still here. Thank you for being here with us.