07/04/2026
Separated by an Ocean, United by an Idea
Two hundred and fifty years ago this Saturday, a small group of colonists signed their names to a declaration built on a simple, radical idea: that a nation's freedom is not granted — it is claimed, defended, and paid for.
Independence was won and then built on year after year into the nation America is today. That kind of self-government, sustained for two hundred and fifty years, is rare in the history of the world, and it remains an example other nations still look to. Congratulations, America, on this milestone, and on everything it took to get here.
This Fourth of July, as families across the United States gather for fireworks and cookouts, another nation is living that same declaration in real time. Ukraine is fighting, right now, for the same rights Americans celebrate this weekend: the right to choose its own government, to speak its own language, to exist as a free people rather than a subject one. Separated by an ocean but united by ideas, Ukraine and the United States share a founding conviction — that liberty is worth defending, whatever the cost.
More than a century before Kyiv became a name spoken in every American household, Ukraine's national poet, Taras Shevchenko, wrote of his hope that his homeland would one day have its own “Washington” — a leader who would bring it a just and lawful order:
Коли ми діждемося Вашингтона
З новим і праведним законом?
А діждемось-таки колись.
“How long must we await
Our Washington,
With a new and righteous law?
Our wait indeed won’t be in vain.”
— Taras Shevchenko, trans. Peter Fedynsky*
Shevchenko never saw that day. He died in 1861, more than a century before Ukraine declared its own independence in 1991, and more than 160 years before Ukrainians would once again take up arms to defend it. But his words outlived him — and they made it all the way to Washington, D.C. In 1964, Ukrainian Americans raised a monument to Shevchenko a few blocks from the White House, on ground Congress renamed Ukrainian Independence Park in 2022, in response to Russia’s invasion. Carved into its base, in Shevchenko’s own words, is his appeal for “the new and righteous law of Washington” — a 19th-century Ukrainian poet’s hope, standing today just blocks from the seat of American government.
That same year Shevchenko wrote of Washington, he also wrote the words that Ukrainians are living by today:
Борітеся – поборете,
Вам Бог помагає!
За вас правда, за вас слава
І воля святая!
“Fight — you’ll win the fight,
God is helping you!
Behind you stands the truth,
And sacred liberty as well!”
— Taras Shevchenko, “The Caucasus,” 1845, trans. Peter Fedynsky
Young Ukrainians beside Shevchenko in Chernihiv — carrying his ideas of freedom into a new generation.
This July 4th, the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation is asking you to hold both nations’ stories side by side. America is the home of the free because of the brave. Ukraine is proving, right now, what that costs — and what it’s worth.
Here’s how to mark this Fourth of July with us:
• Share this message with someone who believes, as we do, that freedom is worth fighting for.
• Donate to support the most urgent humanitarian and advocacy initiative in the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation's 35-year history.
• Fly the Ukrainian flag beside the American one this weekend, if you’re able.
Separated by an ocean. United by ideas. Grateful, this July 4th, for everyone who still believes both are worth defending.
*Photos attached:
Reading the Declaration of Independence to the Army, 1776, c. 1890, artist unknown.— The day independence became an order, not just an idea.
Young Ukrainians beside Shevchenko in Chernihiv — carrying his ideas of freedom into a new generation.
