On Saturday 24 February 2024, the Cambridge Ukrainian community held a vigil to mark 2 years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The event was organised by Cambridge4Ukraine.

The event drew a large crowd, and was led powerfully by Andrii Smytsniuk, a Senior Teaching Associate in Ukrainian at Cambridge University. A number of speakers followed, with many Ukrainians giving moving accounts of their own experiences over the last two years of the full-scale invasion, and the last ten years of war.

The vigil ended in poignant style, with a minute’s silence, followed by Ukrainian opera singer Anna Starushkevych giving a magnificent rendition of Ukrainian folk song ‘Oi, u luzi chervona kalyna’ (‘Oh the red viburnum in a meadow’), and of the Ukrainian national anthem.

Newnham Labour Councillor Cameron Holloway, who has supported Cambridge’s Ukrainian community throughout the last two years, was invited to speak at the rally.

He said: Today marks two years since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion and ten years of Russia’s war on Ukraine. In that time, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions more have suffered hugely for Russia and Putin’s senseless war.

Putin and his supporters have shown time and again, through their words and through their actions, that they don’t see Ukrainians as human. This dehumanisation is necessary for their stated goal, of wiping Ukraine and its people from the map.

They don’t value human life, and they hope that, after years of death and destruction, neither will we. They want us to think, as they do, oh another three people killed, oh another hospital destroyed. But it is so important that we retain our humanity, that we come together in the face of evil.

So today, we remember every single person who has been killed in this war, everyone who has been tortured, raped, abused, everyone forced to live under occupation and the fear of bombs, every child abducted; we remember their lives, their smiles, and their light.

And we remember that, when we assert our humanity, we are not alone. There are people like us in Cambridge, across the UK, and around the world, who are coming together to remember, and to resist.

These candles represent all of those whose lives have been tragically cut short. But these candles also represent the flame of humanity, and of hope – the hope for a better world, for democracy, freedom and peace.

Slava Ukraini.”