PORTLAND, Oregon — Reed College sociology professor Alexandra Hrycak's family fled Eastern Europe in WWII. She has studied the country's society extensively and has friends all over Ukraine, including its second-largest city, Kharkiv.
“They've been under constant bombardment by missile strikes for the better part of a week and it's truly terrifying because not only are people under threat of death, the food supply is running out,” said Hrycak.
“This is a very hard time for all of us and at the same time I want to say this did not surprise me at all and it's been going in this direction for some time.”
Russia’s aggression is ongoing, now greatly intensified by an all-out invasion.
And along with the lost lives and broken buildings is the damage to a free society striving to be everything Russia is not: open, inclusive and democratic.
“Russia has actually systematically destroyed its own civil society, so we have an idea of what it will look like in Ukraine when we look at neighboring Russia and we see what has happened to venerable human rights organizations,” said Hrycak.
But Hrycak says Ukrainians are proving that Putin’s ways are not welcome. And the civilized world is with Ukraine.
“It's really a wonderful thing to hear so many expressions of support and to see how much attention western media has devoted to the toll that this has on Ukrainian citizens.”
Hrycak hopes that attention continues.