“Never graduated, eternally honoured.”

Sunday 2 April will be the last day for Canberrans to see an exhibit that has travelled to 45 universities, in 20 countries across the world. The ANU centre for European Studies is displaying Unissued Diplomas in the Kambri Cultural Centre, which is free to walk in from 7am to 7pm every day.  

The exhibition was created for the Ukrainian university students who died following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It was written, organised, and carried around the world by their peers who lived on to tell their tales.

Yana Mokhonchuk, the 22-year-old intern of Ambassador for Ukraine, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, created the exhibition while on exchange at the University of Toronto earlier this year.

Wishing to get involved in the ongoing war effort, she and a group of fellow Ukrainian exchange students began writing diplomas for their peers who would never graduate.

They began with those they knew personally.

“I met Dmytro Yevdokymov four years ago,” said Yana. “He was always so nice to me. Once, when we met in Kharkiv a couple of years ago, he gave me flowers. He died at the age of 23, in the battles for Kharkiv.

“I would have loved to hold the flowers he would have given me. Instead, I brought flowers to his grave.

“Unfortunately, people are getting used to the war, but war is still going on,” said Yana. “Every day over the past two weeks, I learn of new deaths of people I knew.

“Our mission is to remind people that war is ongoing, and of the price we, as a nation, are paying daily.”

Ambassador Myroshnychenko agreed with his protégé. “It’s confronting, but at the same time, this is our reality. That’s what we want Canberrans to see.

“While we’re talking about the future, we’re losing the cream of the crop of a nation.”

The black and white photographs are not jarring on their own. Young people, aged 17 to 23, posing in selfies, smiling with their pets, some even in uniform after enlisting to defend their homeland.  

However, the short paragraphs about their lives, universally familiar in their day-to-day activities and youthful aspirations, and the even shorter paragraphs about their last moments on Earth – will stay in visitors’ minds for days after.  

Yana, who will receive her own diploma in two months, says this was her one wish for the exhibition.

“The news headlines will pass, but who will return the life of the son killed on the front line to his mother, or a boyfriend to a girl who has only been married to him for 12 days?

“By telling the stories of our losses, we also want to prevent the emergence of new ones.

“I will consider it my small victory if returning home today, you will ask yourself, ‘How else can I help Ukraine?’,” Yana said.

To learn more, or donate towards medical supplies and reconnaissance drones for the Ukrainian war effort, visit unissueddiplomas.org