Immediately after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky made a bold prediction.

Ukraine, the country he documented in his 2015 Oscar-nominated film Winter on Fire, would fight Russia’s aggression, he said, “until the last drop of blood.”

Evidence has shown he did not misread Ukraine’s resolve. The country has withstood continual Russian attacks on its civilian population, constant assault on its infrastructure, and even weathered fluctuating support from the U.S. Congress. The Ukrainian people have remained steadfast – and so, too, has Afineevsky, devoting himself to documenting Ukraine’s effort to remain a sovereign nation.