Durham Reporter

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), with a Slavic studies organization, has been reaching out to give interested students and professors some first-hand information from Ukraine.

The UNC Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies spearheaded a recent online get-together with professors from different universities, some of whom are in Ukraine. That educational session came a day after a campus rally to show support for Ukraine.

"If we can bring trusted friends and colleagues who we really know, who see the truth and know what's going on, and people can see them themselves," Graeme Robertson, the center's director, said in an ABC 11.com report. "If you watched today, the authenticity (that) people spoke with is incredibly striking and very moving. And I think those voices are really, really powerful."

Robertson has worked in both Ukraine and Russia, which invaded its former satellite republic a month ago. He moderated the event, which included some comments from UNC graduate student Silviya Nitsova, who was studying in Ukraine. She recognized the rising tension and left the country before the military strike started.

Nitsova is safe, but she has ties to friends and family members who are still in Ukraine, and she is unable to help them in person.

"I have many friends who have become almost like family to me," Nitsova said in an excerpt broadcast on ABC 11. "Many of them decided to join the Territorial Defense Units." 

Although Nitsova's heart aches for not being able to help the people she knows, she said she was impressed with the unity Ukrainians have shown as they face down the aggression.

Meanwhile, Robertson said Russia is becoming more isolated and cut off, stifling voices of dissent within its borders—something that should raise world concerns.

"Ordinary people, myself included, often feel powerless in front of these international events and these wars abroad," he said in the report. "And what I wanted to illustrate today with our work is that these are ordinary people whose lives are being destroyed, and we can help."