Public Relations
U of M Professors Share Insights on War in Ukraine
By Taylor Ann Carpenter
After over a month of active fighting in the war between Russia and Ukraine, tensions are still rising with no indications of stopping. Further issues are on the horizon for Ukrainians and the rest of Western Europe.
February 24 marked the beginning of the war when Vladimir Putin, Russian leader, sent troops to invade eastern Ukraine and began missile strikes across the nation including the country’s capital Kyiv. According to Dr. Andrei Znamenski, a Russian native and history professor at the University of Memphis, the recent attack that led to the start of the war was a long time coming. Unrest between the two nations began well over a decade ago.
“It started when Ukrainians were able to elect their own government,” he said.
Ukraine voted for its independence from the Soviets in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union and elected its first president. Much of the 90s was spent establishing the fundamentals of the new nation like forming a constitution and creating partnerships between other countries and organizations like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
In 2004, the Orange Revolution, a series of protests, happened because the people wanted to overturn a rigged election that favored the pro-Russian candidate. Though the Supreme Court annulled the election results and the people of Ukraine won, it did not come without repercussions. A wedge between Russia and Ukraine was created.
“When Ukrainians had the first revolution, that’s when Putin came to hate them; so, for him, it became a personal matter,” Znamenski said.
Conflicts rose in 2014 when Russia seized Crimea and backed separatists in the war with Ukraine. There have been eight years’ worth of “mutual bombings” between the two.
In recent months, tensions escalated when Ukraine was seeking to join NATO, which many attribute as the cause of the war. However, Putin’s excuse was “to de-Nazify Ukraine.”
“They [Russian officers and soldiers] believe they are liberators,” said Znamenski.
Prior to the invasion, troops gathered at the border where there is a group of separatists who “did not link themselves to the Ukrainian state.” The area is known historically to be Russian sympathizers. Though not officially recognized by the United Nations, Putin annexed the territories of the separatist group which then allowed for easy access to the rest of the country.
“When Russia invaded some of these areas, they did receive support from the separatists,” he explained.
However, when Putin sent troops to eastern Ukraine, he was greeted by the rest of the country.
“Ukraine stood up and began to fight. It was like a cold shower for them,” he said.
“We have Ukrainians speaking Ukrainian. We have Russians speaking Ukrainian. They are coming together, and the Ukrainian nation is being created right now,” he said. “Basically, Putin contributed to the creation of the Ukrainian nation by invading it. He solidified their sense of unity.”
“I think it really attests to their desire for freedom,” said Dr. Lyn Wright an associate professor in English, Linguistics, and TSAW. After graduating college, she was a Peace Corps volunteer and worked in a high school in Ukraine.
“Seeing these eastern and southern cities resist Russian invasion and stand up for their Ukrainian identity has been great,” she said.
Though she has not been back to Ukraine since her time in the Peace Corps, the impact the attacks had on her was heavy.
“It’s been very devastating. I think it was shocking to see bombs falling in Ukraine and around Kyjv and see the city where I lived completely shelled. Just that level of aggression and violence—now that we’ve seen more reports of war crimes and the kind of violence that seemed unthinkable in the 1990s.”
She is still in touch with friends and students from her time in Ukraine. Keeping up with them through social media, Wright has gotten a glimpse into their first-hand perspective on the war. She explained that many of her friends have evacuated to western European countries.
“One thing I’ve noticed is that some of my students who are trilingual in Russian, Ukrainian, and English are posting only in Ukrainian now,” she said.
Similarly, Dr. Znamenski’s mother still lives in Russia. However, the difference there comes in the information being fed to Russians.
“She is completely cut off from real news,” he said. “Her facts are completely distorted.”
Znamenski explained that Russia “blocked all of western news.” News outlets and platforms like BBC, Voices of America, Instagram, and Facebook. Access to this information is limited and hard to obtain.
As for most Americans, Wright believes the country is standing firm- whether it be because of the Ukrainian flags she mentioned seeing around town or support from the government.
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of buying into Putin’s rhetoric,” she said.
Her belief is that Americans should continue to support Ukraine because of the unprovoked nature of the war.
“It’s been an unwanted attack on Ukraine who was just going along trying to be their own country," Wright concluded.