1, the country’s National Defenders Day, to honor the soldiers killed defending their country from Russia's invasion.At 9:00 a.m. on Kyiv’s Independence Square, a couple hundred people stood in silence as cars on the busy street stopped for a few minutes to commemorate the fallen. Many held the portraits of defenders — their friends, relatives and loved ones, killed or captured by Russia — a testament to a fight that is paid for with the blood of its citizens who have chosen to take up arms to defend their country.Among the photos and flags on Independence Square, each representing a human life, people also held up handwritten signs. “All the beautiful ones stay optimistic,” said one sign, quoting a prominent Ukrainian activist and fighter Pavlo Petrychenko, who was killed on the front earlier this year.