Ukranian filmmaker shares short film inspired by U2's new EP

Ukrainian filmmaker Ilya Mikhaluys has released a documentary short film inspired by U2's new song 'Yours Eternally'.

Shot in December 2025 while Mikhaylus and his crew were embedded alongside the 40,000-strong Khartiya Corps, the film captures the daily lives of soldiers fighting on the frontlines of the war in the Kharkiv region. The short is part of a full-scale documentary set to be released at the end of 2026.

The film's release also coincides with the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

“For four years, Ukraine has been resisting Russia’s full-scale invasion, and the soldiers of the Khartiya Corps are among the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians defending their homeland," Mikhaluys said. "In this short film, and in the upcoming full-length documentary, we attempt to show the beating human heart of those incredible men and women, the struggles and sacrifices they are making everyday for the most sacred thing on this planet - freedom”.

'Yours Eternally' sees Bono and The Edge joined on vocals by Ukrainian musician-turned-soldier Taras Topolia, as well as Ed Sheeran. The track is taken from U2's new Days of Ash EP, which the band surprise-released last week. Featuring five new songs and a spoken-word poem, the project was inspired by victims of violence around the world, including (among others) Renée Nicole Good, who was shot dead by ICE agents in Minnesota last month; and Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian non-violent activist and father of three, who was killed in his village in the West Bank by Israeli settler Yinon Levi in July 2025.

“It’s been a thrill having the four of us back together in the studio over the last year… the songs on Days of Ash are very different in mood and theme to the ones we’re going to put on our album later in the year," said Bono in a statement. "These EP tracks couldn't wait; these songs were impatient to be out in the world. They are songs of defiance and dismay, of lamentation. Songs of celebration will follow, we’re working on those now… because for all the awfulness we see normalised daily on our small screens, there’s nothing normal about these mad and maddening times and we need to stand up to them before we can go back to having faith in the future. And each other.

“'If you have a chance to hope it’s a duty…' is a line we borrowed from Lea Ypi. A laugh would be nice too. Thank you.”

• Watch Ilya Mikhaluys's documentary, inspired by 'Yours Eternally, below: