They Tried to Silence Us, But We Learned to Bleed

When standing with Ukraine means wearing your scars

I DON’T REMEMBER THE EXACT DAY I saw the news about that mural.

It was at some time in the first months of the invasion. We were still adapting to the reality of living each day as if it was the last one..

Still lying to ourselves that someone would fix this soon. When we still believed someone might come to stop the bombs before the spring ended.

This is not a story from Ukraine. Not from Bucha or Mariupol. It came from a place of sun and palms that many of you are familiar with.

I’m talking about Florida.

There, on an intersection in the city of Fort Myers, an artist painted a mural of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

A mural that wasn’t meant to crown him a saint or carve him into stone. Just a simple gesture, gentle: “We see Ukraine. We are with you.”

That was it. A simple and beating heart on the street.

Then someone came at night and threw red paint on the president.

As if someone’s support for a country under invasion was too much for them to even look at.

Mural by Roland Ruocco, April 2022. Fort Myers, Florida

There was a moment when people thought they would clean it, fix it, cover the shame.

The easiest thing would have been to scrub it away. To fix the wound and pretend it hadn’t happened so we could all keep feeling clean, proud, righteous.

But Roland Ruocco saw deeper than most of us would have. That sharp perception you carry only if you are a real artist.

He saw that the vandal didn’t destroy the mural.

The vandal finished it.

The red paint wasn’t a wound to hide. It was the proof that the mural mattered, because a mural no one cares about doesn’t get attacked.

A voice no one hears doesn’t get silenced.

And Roland decided that he wouldn’t fix it. He didn’t repaint it. He left the red paint exactly where it fell.

He saw that the red slash was the truth screaming out.

That paint was proof that the mural had power. Power enough to make a coward sneak out at night, hiding behind anonymity, trembling with rage and fear

That faceless coward, in trying to kill it, made it alive.

I wish that Roland someday would know how much this story has taught me. He knew that art is not about making things “pretty.”

Art is about holding up a mirror, even when the reflection makes you want to turn away.

He understood that real support is not polite. It is not sterile. It gets vandalized. It gets spat on.

And it stands anyway.

He understood something that even we in Ukraine sometimes forget: hate only arrives when you’re touching the truth.

And the best answer is not to hide or scrub or beg for approval. The best answer is to stand there, unchanged, letting the paint speak too.

And I wonder, when they vandalize your small acts of goodness, when someone spit on the little sticker on your window, when they laugh at your flag… do you wash it away?

Do you shrink so they can breathe easier?

Or do you stand there, like that mural?

After the vandalism, the community of Fort Myers was so outraged that it sparked a much larger mural project: 20 artworks were painted by local artists, as well as a sculpture of a Ukrainian woman.

This artist in that intersection in Florida showed more courage than many leaders show with entire armies behind them.

He turned that vandalism into a second voice, one that shouts even louder than the original mural .

He made me believe that art is not about avoiding conflict. It is about walking straight into it and saying:

“Go on. Try to cover me.”

I wanted to tell you this story because it carries so much meaning.

It is about the people who keep standing after being defaced.

About the murals in our hearts that we keep trying to repaint and “sanitize” so we don’t look “too political,” “too angry,” “too naive.”

Mural created by “Artsemble Underground,” comprised of artists Brian Weaver and Cesar Aguilera

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We think support looks beautiful, but real support bleeds. It gets dirty.

It doesnt apologize for existing.

It stands.

That mural is still there. Red paint and all.

Imperfect, defiant, truer than before.

And in a way, so is Zelenskyy.

So is Roland.

So am I.

So are you.

🇺🇦

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🔖 Please take a look and join (if you liked, of course) my second journal I just launched recently in honor of our common fight:

He’s Not Disappointed, But Exposed

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📖 “United We Stand” is a photo book that celebrates the bond between our two nations. Download it for free (PDF format).

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📖 “The Divine Comedian: Ukraine’s Journey Through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise” is my first book: about Ukraine, seen from inside the fire, and the hope that refuses to die. Download it for free (PDF & Kindle).