Students Holds Vigil To Recognize Third Anniversary of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Dozens of Harvard affiliates gathered on the steps of Memorial Church on Monday to show support for Ukraine three years after Russia’s invasion began.

At the vigil, which was hosted by the Harvard Undergraduate Ukraine Solidarity Group, undergraduates from Ukraine gave speeches on their memories of the war and hopes for the future.

“We do not gather here to mourn, but to honor a nation that still fights, a nation that is carried by each and every one of us on this campus,” HUUSG co-founder Mariia Solovii ’27 said in a speech.

But speakers at the vigil did not remark on the United States’ tilt toward rapprochement with Russia under the Trump administration, which agreed on Tuesday to begin negotiating with Russia to end the war — without including Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly derided Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and threatened to condition aid to Ukraine on access to Ukrainian natural resources.

The U.S. on Monday voted with Russia on United Nations resolutions marking the war’s third anniversary, opposing language that urged Russia’s withdrawal and described Russia as the aggressor.

Attendees of Monday’s vigil at Harvard stood silently, with many wearing the Ukrainian flag draped over their shoulders. Solovii urged listeners to be vocal in their support for Ukraine.

“Being indifferent, inactive, and slow, can cost someone a life. Being too indecisive and too cautious can leave someone without a home,” she said.

Mariia Hnatiuk ’27, who founded HUUSG along with Solovii, said she used to live in the Bucha region and was home with her family when the war started.

“The first week was spent with constant bombardments, no electricity, no internet, nothing,” she said. Her family’s house was struck by two rockets, she said, and their neighbor was killed.

Oksana Trefanenko ’28, who grew up in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, said in her speech that she thinks about a life in which “everything had stayed ordinary” — in which she and her peers “never had to learn a difference between air raid signals or memorize how long it takes different types of missiles to reach the area where we live.”

“Here, we carry on remembering a life that should have been ours, and choosing to fight for it,” Trefanenko said. “Especially since I’m here at Harvard, a place of knowledge and power, I am reminded of the responsibility we all carry.”

Once the speeches concluded, Anna Lavrenchuk ’28 led the crowd in a prayer for Ukraine.

“We pray for the people of Ukraine. For those who are under threat for their very lives. And for those who have lost their loved ones,” Lavrenchuk said, opening the prayer.

To end the prayer, she said, “May we walk in our ways so that freedom and justice become a reality for the people of Ukraine and for all the world. Amen.”

Towards the end of the vigil, attendees were handed candles and asked to light them in remembrance of the lives both disrupted and lost during the conflict. As the wind blew many candles out, Solovii said this was a sign of “the world supporting” Ukraine.

Fedor I. Goryanyy ’28, who assisted in the organization of the vigil, said that the most important part of the event was to raise awareness and attention for the war in a media landscape that doesn’t “report as much on the conflict.”

“Despite the news slowly swaying away from the conflict and not reporting on it as much, it just shows that there’s a community that stands behind us,” Goryanyy said.

He later added that the community coming together shows “that we’re not alone in this conflict.”

“I’m here at Harvard actually with the aim of studying Ukrainian literature and I’m here supporting students who have organized. But also commemorating the memory of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” said attendee Paul Morrison, a Ph.D. student in Slavic Languages and Literatures.

“It’s really important to honor those that sacrificed their lives in protecting the country, but also to remember everything Ukraine stands for, in terms of its cultural heritage and history,” Morrison added.

—Staff writer Alexander W. Anoma can be reached at alexander.anoma@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @AnomaAlexander.

—Staff writer Chantel A. De Jesus can be reached at chantel.dejesus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @c_a_dejesus.