Two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kenan Institute for Ethics hosted the three-day event “Ukraine at War: Life in a Time of Fear and Hope” on March 27–29, 2024. Traveling to Duke University from New York, California, the Hague, and even the frontlines of the war itself, “Ukraine at War” speakers shared their experiences with hundreds of students and community members through class visits, workshops, performances, and events.
Highlighting the war’s devastating impacts on the country’s infrastructure, military, civilians, and even ecological health, “Ukraine at War” and its associated events explored the ways in which people respond ethically to war — whether by witnessing, fighting, commemorating, or repairing. At the same time, it showcased the remarkable resilience of the Ukrainian people and the ways that they sustain themselves and their community through their national identity, language, and arts. “Including the arts and personal narratives in this program really brought together the local community and a real sense of hope — something as equally necessary as the historical facts and socio-political analysis of this war,” wrote one audience member.
Through their words and actions, the speakers of “Ukraine at War” emphasized that even when a society is confronted with an all-encompassing crisis, we are not powerless: everyone has agency, and everyone has something they can do. The photos below touch on some of the stories they shared.
Through Documentary Films, Portraits of Ukraine at War
On the evening of Wednesday, March 27, two events showcased the experiences of Ukrainians in the first months of the war. An interview with champion rock climber Jenya Kazbekova highlighted one athlete’s commitment to representing her nation, and a screening of the Academy Award-winning documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” showed audiences the devastating human costs of the city’s siege in the early days of the full-scale Russian invasion.
Champion rock climber Jenya Kazbekova speaks to a capacity audience at Yonderlust, a cafe and outdoor recreation shop in downtown Durham. The venue held a sneak preview screening of a REELROCK 18 documentary on Ukrainian rock climbers returning to Kyiv for a national competition after the war broke out, titled “Climbing Never Die.”
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Dima Zlenko (left), a graduate student at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, and David Toole, director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, speak to the audience before the screening of the Academy Award-winning documentary film, ”20 Days in Mariupol.” About 100 people attended the screening.
Photo by Summer Steenberg.
The documentary covers Russia's 2022 siege of the city of Mariupol and its devastating human impacts. Members of the audience audibly wept at the scenes in which doctors were unable to save the lives of children fatally injured in bombings.
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Lunch and Learning Across Duke’s Schools
Showcasing speakers’ remarkable breadth of expertise, midday events on Thursday, March 28 focused on issues such as mental health resources for Ukrainians impacted by the war, the ecological impacts of war on Ukraine’s soil, and the documentation of war crimes for international criminal court cases. Events took place at the Sanford School of Public Policy, the Nicholas School of the Environment, and Duke Law School.
Clinical psychologist Alla Prokhovnik-Raphique speaks during an event at the Sanford School of Public Policy's Child & Family Policy Center.
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Dr. Prokhovnik-Raphique describes the devastating psychological impact of the war on Ukrainian families and the pressing need for mental health services. “There is a risk of vicarious psychological trauma and numbness even for those who are not directly affected," she said.
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Ecologist Nina Fontana faces the audience at a lunchtime event at the Nicholas School of the Environment hosted by the Duke Conservation Society and Net Impact Club UNC.
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Fontana's work focuses on the ecological impacts of war, such as the contamination and compression of soil from land mines.
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Viktoriia Grivina gestures as she speaks at the Nicholas School of the Environment alongside Dr. Fontina. A Ph.D. candidate in anthropology, her work focuses on the ecology of cities — such as Kharkiv, a city in northeast Ukraine that has faced heavy bombardment from Russia.
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Ewa Hofmańska speaks at the Duke Law School in an event cosponsored by the Center for International Comparative Law. A lawyer, Hofmańska is the project manager for Project Sunflower, which collects evidence of war crimes committed in Ukraine for use in post-conflict accountability proceedings.
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Finding Respite in Traditional Ukrainian Arts
Pysanky, or Easter eggs, are a traditional Ukrainian folk art. Amid “Ukraine at War” events, which happened to be scheduled during Easter week, Duke Arts Create hosted a pysanky workshop for students, staff, and other community members in the Duke Arts Annex.
A workshop participant gestures at a sheet displaying several designs for Pysanka, or traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs. Duke Arts Create partnered with the Kenan Institute for Ethics on this workshop in the days leading up to Easter.
Photo credit: Jimmy Paton.
Nina Fontana (right) speaks to a workshop participant. In addition to presenting her ecological research, Dr. Fontana led this workshop on creating pysanky, an art form she learned from her mother, a refugee from Ukraine.
Photo credit: Jimmy Paton.
A participant laughs as she writes her design. The inspiring and sustaining role of the cultural arts during dark times was a key theme of the three-day event.
Photo credit: Jimmy Paton.
Photo credit: Jimmy Paton.
Photo credit: Jimmy Paton.
Photo credit: Jimmy Paton.
Showcasing the Power of the Arts Amid Conflict
The keynote event of “Ukraine at War” shared the struggles of Ukrainians, whether refugees, soldiers, or those with loved ones living or fighting in war zones. But it also showed the places where they find strength — singing together, writing poetry, and in the belief and knowledge that they are not alone.
The event opened with Ukrainians in the Carolinas' Spivochi Ensemble singing traditional Ukrainian songs, including "Shchedryk," whose melody was later adapted into the English "Carol of the Bells." Several members of the ensemble are Ukrainian refugees.
Photo credit: Anna Wheless.
David Toole, Nannerl O. Keohane Director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, introduces Yaryna Chornohuz. Toole credited the Katz Family Fund for Women, Ethics, and Leadership for making the event possible.
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Yaryna Chornohuz, a poet and combat medic who currently serves in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, addresses the audience. Chornohuz's address focused on her pride in fighting for her national identity as both a cultural ambassador for the Ukrainian language and on the frontlines of the war with Russia.
Photo credit: Anna Wheless.
The poster for the event, featuring imagery from photographs of Kyiv in the aftermath of Russia's invasion, stands in the foreground as Chornohuz delivers her address.
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Chornohuz says that Ukraine is fighting against "ten times bigger forces." In response to the rhetorical question “Why don't you just give up? Give Putin the land that he wants?” she described a class visit earlier that day, in which Professor Orin Starn displayed a map of Ukraine's occupied territories. "These cities [are] just not a map to us...To the end of my life, these territories will be Ukraine, and I’ll never stop thinking they are Ukraine.”
Photo credit: Anna Wheless.
Chornohuz described the importance of United States support for the Ukrainian cause. "We still will fight, but if we [have] weapons, armed vehicles, tanks — we’re able to save these borders and liberate territories without paying a very high price and casualty rate." Chornohuz closed her remarks by reading several poems that she wrote on the war's frontlines.
Photo credit: Anna Wheless.
Nadia Tarnawky, a singer and musicologist who specializes in Ukrainian folk singing, performs "Postcards from Another World," a multimedia presentation blending song, imagery, and video footage.
Photo credit: Anna Wheless.
Tarnawsky coaches the audience to sing different melodies of a song, offering a simple, low-note version to reluctant singers.
Photo credit: Anna Wheless.
Bringing the event to a close, Tarnawsky leads the audience in the singing of a traditional Ukrainian song, ”Svyatyj Vechor.”
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Offering Perspectives From Research and Lived Experience
On the final day of “Ukraine at War,” speakers shared diverse perspectives from across their areas of expertise in two midday panels: “Sites of Violence, Sites of Resistance: Bodies, Ecologies, Communities & Music” and “Witnessing and Responsibility: Allocating Care in an Age of Global Crisis.”
Ecologist Nina Fontana points to an image of newspaper headlines reporting on the environmental devastation caused by the war in Ukraine. Her presentation demonstrated the impact of military strikes with a map showing artillery craters across Ukraine's landscape.
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Following Fontana's presentation, which pointed out that the etymology of "ecology" comes from the Greek for "a place to live," Viktoriia Grivina discusses the ecology of cities through the example of Kharkiv, where she documents the urban population's resilience and ingenuity in the face of Russian bombardment.
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Professional rock climber Jenya Kazbekova describes her journey to rediscover her purpose after fleeing Ukraine in the early days of the war. Initially despondent, she found inspiration by thinking about how she could promote the Ukrainian cause through her athletic competitions. "Since August 2022, I have competed and represented my country and the anthem of Ukraine has been played," she said. "It felt so meaningful that I can influence the situation just a little bit and show to the world how resilient is Ukraine."
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Alla Prokhovnik-Raphique speaks to the audience about the importance of ensuring that mental health services are prioritized along with aid in order to minimize trauma.
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Nadia Tarnawsky speaks about the role of music in places of conflict in a time of war, its function as a "uniter of people," and the importance of preserving it.
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
Mila Yutskevych, a master's student at North Carolina State University, responds to another audience member's question about misinformation on Ukraine during a post-panel Q&A.
Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.
The audience waits for the second panel to begin after a lunchnbreak. Over 50 people attended the closing "Ukraine at War" events at the Kenan Institute for Ethics.
Photo credit: Sean Taylor.
Ewa Hofmańska describes the role of international criminal court proceedings in driving accountability for war crimes. "Nothing can happen unless evidence can be gathered," she said, hence the importance of organizations like Project Sunflower, which are dedicated to that purpose.
Photo credit: Sean Taylor.
Hanna Dosenko (left), a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology, speaks about her fieldwork tracking how the bodies of Ukrainians killed in battle are returned home. "I wanted to write about a terrible job that is invisible," she said.
Photo credit: Sean Taylor.
Yaryna Chornohuz gestures to the areas of Ukraine where she fought on the frontlines of the war. Most people have heard of the war's devastating impact on cities like Mariupol, Chornohuz said, but "there's lots of small villages that even Ukrainians don’t know these names" that also suffered attacks.
Photo credit: Sean Taylor.
"My most difficult experience as combat medic is evacuating from a basement a wounded ten-year-old boy," Chornohuz said. "We heard the screams in this house, and found there the boy who was very pale. And he said he has pain in his chest. [We saw] a small wound where shrapnel came." She and her unit transported the boy and his family members out of the war zone to a hospital. "[His mother] asked me, "'What am I to do?' I said, "Go wherever, but don’t go back to here.'"
Photo credit: Sean Taylor.
American journalist Terrell Starr speaks about his experiences covering the war on the ground in Ukraine, embedded in military defense units. "Why the hell are we not supporting Ukraine?" he asked, referring to the 2024 aid package that was stalled in the United States Congress at the time of the event. Starr called upon the audience to challenge power in "an equitable, morally consistent way.'"
Photo credit: Sean Taylor.
Acknowledgments
The Kenan Institute for Ethics is grateful for the Katz Family Fund for Women, Ethics, and Leadership for making these events possible. We also owe thanks to our partners in the Duke and Durham communities who hosted “Ukraine at War” speakers for class visits and other events, enabling them to connect with much wider audiences during their brief time in Durham.
Professor of Cultural Anthropology Orin Starn first proposed that the Kenan Institute for Ethics organize an event on Ukraine during the fall of 2022. We are grateful for this inspiration of his, as well as his persistence amid many delays and obstacles in bringing it to fruition.
Summer Steenberg, a Duke University Ph.D. Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, played an essential role in organizing “Ukraine at War” events — both in conceptualizing them and in making them happen. This event would not have been possible without her.
”Ukraine at War” speakers pose with Kenan Institute for Ethics staff and collaborators. From left to right, Kenan Institute for Ethics Program Director Hillary Train, Summer Steenberg, Yaryna Chornohuz, Hanna Dosenko, Ewa Hofmańska, Viktoriia Grivina, David Toole, Alla Prokhovnik-Raphique, Jenya Kazbekova, Nadia Tarnawsky, and Nina Fontana.
