This week, Ukrainians will mark our Independence Day. Under normal circumstances, August 24 is a day of celebration – a day to remember the moment Ukraine reclaimed its sovereignty and chose its own path as a free European nation.
But once again, we mark our independence while fighting to preserve it.
For Ukrainians, independence is no longer a historical concept or a date on the calendar. It is something our people defend every day – in the trenches, in our cities, in hospitals and schools, and in homes where parents put their children to sleep knowing that an air-raid siren may wake them before morning.
More than four years into the war, Russia continues its attacks against Ukraine. Missiles and drones continue to strike cities far from the battlefield. Residential buildings and civilian infrastructure continue to be hit. Behind every statistic is a human being who never chose to be part of this war.
The latest figures should alarm the international community. According to the United Nations, civilian casualties in Ukraine rose sharply during the first half of 2026. The trend has continued, with July recording the highest number of civilian casualties since May 2022.
This is not what de-escalation looks like.
And from Israel, there is another dimension of this war that is impossible to ignore. Kyiv and Tel Aviv are closer than the map suggests.
For years, Ukrainians have learned to recognize the sound of drones approaching their cities. Israelis know that sound too.
They know the experience of being awakened by sirens. They know what it means to take children into shelters in the middle of the night. They know the strange reality of going to work in the morning after spending the night wondering whether a missile will hit their neighborhood.
Ukraine and Israel are fighting different wars, against different enemies and under different circumstances. These differences matter and should not be erased. But there is also a lesson connecting our experiences.
The security threats facing democratic countries are no longer confined neatly within national borders.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has demonstrated how modern warfare combines missiles, drones, cyber operations, disinformation, and attacks on civilian infrastructure with the deliberate objective of exhausting societies over time.
Israel and its neighbors have witnessed another manifestation of this challenge through Iran and the network of armed actors it has supported across the Middle East.
The actors are different, but the international security challenge is increasingly interconnected.
Authoritarian cooperation is not theoretical
Perhaps the clearest symbol of this new reality is the drone.
Iranian-designed Shahed drones became one of the symbols of Russia’s campaign against Ukraine. Ukrainians have spent years developing methods to detect, intercept, and defend against such threats.
What began as a weapon associated with one regional conflict has become part of a much broader security challenge.
Russia’s deepening military cooperation with other authoritarian regimes should therefore concern not only Ukraine. North Korean missiles are now being used in Russia’s war, while cooperation among Moscow, Tehran, and Pyongyang demonstrates how military technology, knowledge, and capabilities can move between theaters of conflict.
A weapon tested against Ukrainian civilians today may influence another battlefield tomorrow.
This is why Ukraine’s security cannot be separated entirely from European security, just as instability generated in the Middle East does not remain confined to the Middle East. The democratic world needs to start thinking accordingly.
Ukraine and Israel have accumulated enormous – and painfully earned – experience in protecting civilian populations from missiles and drones. We should turn that experience into deeper practical cooperation.
Air defense, drone detection, protection of critical infrastructure, emergency medicine, cyber defense, and the resilience of civilian systems are areas where knowledge can save lives.
Ukraine has lessons to share. Israel has lessons to share. And democratic nations should be sharing those lessons far more quickly than their adversaries share weapons.
This is perhaps one of the most important lessons of the past several years: Democracies cannot afford to confront interconnected threats as if every war exists in isolation. International cooperation cannot begin only after missiles are launched.
Independence is the right to choose your own future
For Ukrainians, this is ultimately what our Independence Day represents.
Russia’s war is not simply about territory. It is about whether a sovereign nation has the right to determine its own future – its alliances, its democratic institutions, and the society its citizens choose to build.
Ukrainians have answered that question with extraordinary courage. They continue working, teaching, raising children, and rebuilding while the war continues around them. Millions dream of the day when families separated by war can finally come home.
Most of all, Ukrainians want peace. But after years of war, we also understand that peace cannot simply mean the absence of missiles for a few weeks or months. Sustainable peace must provide security and ensure that aggression is not rewarded or merely postponed.
This lesson should resonate far beyond Ukraine.
When aggression succeeds in one region, others are watching. When civilians can be terrorized into submission, others learn from it. And when democratic countries stand together and demonstrate that borders, sovereignty, and human life still matter, others are watching that too.
This August 24, Ukrainians will raise our flag while the war continues. We will remember those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom. We will think of our soldiers, our children, and the millions of Ukrainians who simply want to return to ordinary life.
But we will also look beyond our own borders.
From Kyiv to Jerusalem, from Europe to the Middle East, the geography may be different, but one principle should unite us: No nation should have to surrender its freedom because another regime believes that missiles, drones, and fear give it the right to decide its future.
That is what Ukrainians are defending today. And that is why Ukraine’s Independence Day should matter far beyond Ukraine.
The writer is the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel.
