Under the leadership of Viktoria Mukha, Kyiv City Council’s Coordination Council for the Preparation and Implementation of the Concept for Memorializing the Participants and Events of the Russia-Ukraine War prepared the proposals for the minute’s silence public announcements.

As a member of the Coordination Council, Kateryna Semenyuk, a Past / Future / Art co-founder, took on the task of finding a visual solution for public announcements. Also joining the project pro-bono were the Kultura visual communications studio’s Creative Director Sasha Bychenko and Design Strategist Oleksii Salnikov. Film Editor Yana Shustorovich animated the message to adapt it for the video format.

The team’s solution is rooted in an understated, minimalist approach complemented by the UAF Memory font, created with commemoration settings in mind by type designer Dmytro Rastvortsev at the request of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Brand Designer Taras Ishchyk.

Oleksii Salnykov and Sasha Bychenko describe the visual concept as follows:

“Grief requires no decorations or loud announcements. Russia’s war on the Ukrainian people took many, traumatizing and irreversibly changing the rest. I mean all of us: military and civilians, adults and children. Its memory will stay with us and the future generations of Ukrainians. Therefore, we aimed for a gentle reminder without fanfare or decorative formality, a message that is inclusive while not overly traumatizing and confident while understated. The UAF Memory font, intended for this context, and an intentionally stripped-down aesthetic create a distinctly quiet space (in auditory and visual terms) essential for remembering and honoring the fallen.”

The initiative marked another step toward establishing the minute’s silence as a public practice during the Russian-Ukrainian War. The nationwide minute’s silence was introduced in 2022 to honor those killed by the armed aggression of Russia. Iryna Tsybukh, a Hospitaliers battalion paramedic, volunteer, and journalist killed in 2024, proposed additional meaning for this practice. She launched the Minute of Honor, an educational project that aims to reinvent the minute’s silence as a moment of pride, gratitude, and unity to make it more than a grief ritual. Vshanuy NGO later stepped in to further her cause.

Anybody can join this honoring act in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities by placing a public-space digital advertisement about the daily minute’s silence at 9:00 am. The mock-ups are available for download in multiple formats via this link.