As all Ukrainians celebrated their Independence Day, Yulia Vyshnivska, a 19-year-old student, was warned of an increased threat of Russian strikes.
But that didn’t stop her and hundreds of others from taking to an exposed rooftop for an open-air musical display of defiance in the heart of kyiv.
“I heard on the radio that the Americans were warning that the Russians were going to bomb the Russians today, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, they want to kill us,'” she said, as the setting sun illuminated the patterns of her traditional dress, the vyshyvanka.
“But we are used to it and know that we are living in a dangerous situation, so we are not afraid.”
As a dozen orchestra musicians, dressed in black, played rousing versions of Ukrainian classics, I mentioned one thing that is different from their last two days of warring independence: Ukraine has now entered Russian territory and taken it.
“When we heard this news from Kursk, in the Russian region, it was an incredible event. It is like a miracle for us. We are very happy about it,” said Ms. Vyshnivska.
She said the plight of Russians on the border today, displaced and in danger, is a natural consequence of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine two and a half years ago.
“From that moment on, we started to hate them and now… we want to kill them. And it’s awful. I understand that it’s not acceptable for humans to say this, but we hate them and we can’t think otherwise because they want to kill us.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who attended several Independence Day events in the capital, delivered a pre-recorded speech from the Sumy region, just across the border from the newly conquered Russian territory.
“Russia has waged war on us. It has violated not only sovereign borders, but also the limits of cruelty and common sense,” he told his people.
“He sought only one thing: to destroy us. And what the enemy had brought to our land has now returned home.”
Nearly three weeks after the Kursk incursion began, Ukraine has consolidated much of the Russian territory it quickly seized in the surprise operation.
An estimated 10,000 elite Ukrainian soldiers crossed the border on August 6. take more ground In the space of a few days, Russia has won the most victories in Ukraine so far this year.
Since the start of the operation, the BBC has remained in contact with one of the Ukrainian fighters currently in Russia.
In his latest messages, Serhiy – a pseudonym – revealed that the situation was now more difficult.
“Russia has become stronger. This is seen in the number of drone, artillery and aviation strikes. Its sabotage and reconnaissance groups have also started operating,” he wrote.
All this meant that Ukrainians suffered more losses, he added.
“At the beginning of the operation, we were advancing. Our losses were minimal. Today, because of the Russian firepower, we are losing a lot of soldiers. Moreover, the Russians here are fighting for their territory, just as we are fighting for ours.”
Serhiy says his earlier elation is giving way to some skepticism.
“Many of us do not understand the meaning of this operation. It is one thing to fight for Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. It is another for the Kursk region, which we do not need.”
President Zelensky had said that Operation Kursk was aimed at capturing Russian soldiers – which led to a prisoner exchange and the release of 115 Ukrainians Saturday – among other goals he was unable to reveal.
He also said the operation was a preemptive strike aimed at deterring Russian attacks on Sumy.
Despite the sense of justice and retribution that the Kursk raid brought, it remains a risky strategy for kyiv.
These rapid gains must be weighed against losses in eastern Ukraine, where Russia continues to gain ground in a fierce battle.
Moscow’s troops are closing in on the town of Pokrovsk, which had a population of about 60,000 before the fighting.
It is one of the largest cities in the Donetsk region still under Ukrainian control and is an important centre for the defence forces.
“It’s a really difficult situation,” Nazar Voytenkov, 23, a former TV journalist who now volunteers with the 33rd Mechanized Brigade defending Pokrovsk, told us over a crackling phone line.
I asked him if he was aware that Russian troops were being diverted to defend their own territory.
“No, no, I don’t think so. I think the Russians have a large contingent of troops in the Kursk region and elsewhere in Russia, and they are using them in this operation launched by the Ukrainian forces.”
I asked whether this had relieved pressure on Ukrainian troops in the region – a key hope for kyiv.
“I don’t feel like it has gotten any easier. We still have enemies in every direction and last week they tried to get closer again,” he said.
“They used about ten armored vehicles and infantry to take our positions, but we defended well. We won this battle, and now we are waiting for their next fight. So no, they are still there.”
This weekend’s celebrations were undoubtedly invigorated by recent success on Russian soil, but Ukraine’s path to next year’s Independence Day is no clearer and remains fraught with challenges and uncertainty.
“It’s just a monotonous, monotonous genocide,” Oleksandr Mykhed, one of Ukraine’s greatest authors, said quietly.
We met him in a huge exhibition building that used to house a museum dedicated to Lenin. He had just finished a lecture on his new book, which examines how the country’s great classical writers would view the latest Russian invasion.
It would be hard to find a better place to symbolize Ukraine’s evolution since its independence in 1991 and its determination not to be drawn back into Moscow’s orbit.
“The Russians want every missile strike to be called a ‘new missile strike’. They want the whole world to get used to it and make it routine, banal. To make it ‘ordinary genocide’.”
I asked him what hope Ukrainians could cling to as they endure the next 12 months until their next independence day.
“It is time to clearly understand what true patriotism is. And we know what it looks like,” he said.
His argument was that despite the mental and physical scars and the deep collective grief, everyone had a duty to be strong and ensure Ukraine’s survival.
“You may be tired, of course, everything may be depressing, but still, you must save your country,” the Ukrainian author said.
Additional reporting by Kyla Herrmannsen, Hanna Chornous and Anastasia Levchenko
