Notes: I did not record the conversation on which this story is based. The information in the story comes from notes, memory, and outside sources. When I attribute dialogue without quotation marks, the words represent the gist of what someone said.

There are some places where you can not only read about the events shifting the world’s foundations but see direct evidence of them. Washington, D.C., is one of those places.

I was in the city for the Washington Journalism and Media Conference, a sort of career-exploration summer camp for high school students interested in (if you couldn’t guess) journalism and media. We were making a short stop at the White House for a photo op. As I walked around on the pedestrian-only street just beyond the North Lawn and absorbed the passionate and eclectic scene that always exists in front of major government buildings, familiar blue and yellow flags caught my eye.

Several protesters stood in a line on the road, their backs squarely to the White House. Some waved flags and some were draped in flags — Ukrainian flags, American flags, and a flag which combined both. They held signs. UKRAINE IS STANDING FOR THE WORLD. STAND FOR UKRAINE and russia: STOP BOMBING MY HOME. A placard was propped up at their feet. In lettering that appeared to be black tape on a blue and white background, it read DAY 145.

I started asking questions of one woman. She stood draped in a Ukrainian flag and holding two signs. The sign she held on the bottom read when Russian world came to Ukraine… The words Russian world were written in red, dripping letters, like blood. Around the caption were photos of rubble and bodies. The woman wore sunglasses with big dark lenses and her face seemed carved in sadness. She and those around her were Ukrainian expatriates, having moved to the United States years ago. They had family and friends in Ukraine when the missiles began falling in February. Nowhere in the country is safe, she told me. You never know where a bomb might land. (Her description is supported by evidence. The BBC has reported that Russian strikes have blown up a maternity hospital and a shopping mall, among other places.) Those still in Ukraine — the friends and loved ones of the protesters standing in front of the White House — have tried to flee the country, some with small children, not knowing where to go.

The sign says Day 145, I said. Have you been here every day since the war started?

Yes, she said, we take turns. People from her organization, US Ukrainian Activists, have protested in front of the White House every day since the all-out invasion in February. She made a distinction that the February invasion was not when the war started; she maintains that the war truly started in 2014. That year, Russia covertly helped separatists to fight a civil war in eastern Ukraine, and parts of the country have been war zones ever since. We are “a drop in the ocean” of people who are doing something, the woman told me.

The public has been mostly sympathetic, with some exceptions. One of the protesters told me that one time, a group of people from the Communist Party yelled harassment towards the Ukrainians for several minutes. One time a person rode by on a bike and shouted “Nazis!” But the protesters’ foes are outnumbered by allies. A man in the group answered my question about interactions with the public. He was a round-faced man with short hair, and he did not seem sad like the woman did, but instead happy to talk to me. The man told me that he had met travelers from Europe who were sheltering Ukrainian refugees in their homes. A post on US Ukrainian Activists’ Instagram from that day — July 18, Day 145 — has a caption reading, “We are grateful for the warm support we receive from the public at our rallies. Today, we met friends of Ukraine including people from Brazil, Israel, Poland, Florida, Ohio, & Wisconsin, and a Mexican-American family from North Carolina.” In their efforts, the Ukrainians have an atlas of solidarity.

Does it matter? Do the Ukrainian-flag bumper stickers on our cars make a difference for the families hiding in basements or the soldiers in muddy trenches?

According to the Department of Defense, the US has sent Ukraine thousands of missiles, artillery systems, drones, various vehicles, and an armory of other war goods — weapons that have already proven effective at drawing Russian blood, according to Al Jazeera. The United States is a democratic country. The government is responsive to public opinion.

As I was about to walk away, the round-faced man gave me a flyer for the US Ukrainian Activists. At the bottom of the flyer is a cartoon of a blue tractor towing away a tank marked with the Russian Z. At first a viral video (which Forbes reports may or may not be authentic), the mischievous tractor is now a symbol of Ukrainian defiance. I accepted the flyer and, full journalistic disclosure, told the protesters that I greatly respect the work they are doing — because I do.

The war rumbles on. Reporting from Al Jazeera indicates that neither side is close to victory. Day 145 was hot and muggy, but the protesters I met in front of the White House will likely see the leaves turn gold and fall to the ground, feel cold wind on their faces, and see the city’s cherry trees blossom once again as they stand with their flags and their signs, waiting for the last Russian soldier to leave Ukraine.