It breaks my heart. I have a few Ukrainian coworkers (working remotely), and when we jump in Slack and I chat with them now compared to when we first started working together, all I hear is the weariness, the sadness, the loss. This woman designed all of our proprietary software, and she was always such an upbeat, motivated badass. That cliche of a person “lighting up the room” when they walk in? That’s her. Now though? She’s had to move three times to avoid bombs, and even though she’s safe now, she’s lost something that I don’t know if she will ever get back.

What I see in this picture of Zelenskyy is what I hear in her voice every time I talk with her. And it makes me fucking furious.