UKRAINE. Professor Max Petzold had just applied for an Erasmus project to strengthen public health research in several Eastern European countries, including Ukraine, when the country was invaded. Together, we called Olena Dubovyk, associate professor and senior lecturer at one of the universities in Kyiv, who provided some insight into her personal experience of the situation in the Ukraine war.
Ukraine has experienced instability and conflict since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, Olena Dubovyk tells us in a video call on Thursday, March 3.
“We were prepared for an information war or financial constraints, but we were not ready for military action. Ukraine is an autonomous and peaceful state that has not responded to Russia’s repeated provocations,” says Olena Dubovyk.
Dubovyk is both a general practitioner and a psychologist, a field that she also defended her thesis in. Normally, she is an associate professor and senior lecturer at the Department of Special and Inclusive Education at the Faculty of Special Psychology and Medicine at National Pedagogical Dragomanov University, one of the universities in Kyiv. The university has 16,000 students and 2,500 teaching staff.
The university is helping the country prepare
Prior to the invasion, higher education in Ukraine offered both on-campus and digital classes, the latter a pandemic measure. Since February 24, all teaching at universities in the country has been suspended. There is huge destruction in Kyiv and several other cities. Both students and teaching staff are now working as volunteers in the country’s defense. They contribute to the best of their ability to strengthen the country’s defense force and provide support to their fellow citizens who need it. In recent years, all university students in Ukraine have received regular training in first aid and in psychological crisis management.
Manufacturing camouflage
Like so many other Kyiv residents, Olena Dubovyk and her husband have left the capital and are currently living with friends in western Ukraine where, at the time of this interview, the fighting has not yet reached. And, like so many other Ukrainians, she is doing what she can to contribute to the country’s defense. They cook food and transport it to the troops, collect clothing, feed refugees, sort medicines and provide emergency medical help and psychological support to their fellow citizens. Important buildings, like hospitals and orphanages, are also guarded by the residents.
When we contact Olena Dubovyk for our video call, she is in a gymnasium, where she is taking a break from making camouflage netting. In the hall, people tie fabric strips to the netting that will make the army and its military vehicles more difficult for the enemy to detect.
“All of us Ukrainians are doing what we can to protect our homeland. The situation here is extremely difficult and the people of Ukraine are eternally grateful for those who defend the country,” says Olena Dubovyk over the video call in Max Petzold’s hand.
Digital support groups
Until the invasion, Olena Dubovyk combined her work as a senior lecturer with work as a psychologist in Kyiv. Over the last three years she has run the Infanta treatment center, which provides psychological and speech therapy for children with physical and cognitive disabilities and their families in Kyiv.
The outbreak of war increases the pressure on people and their need for psychological support is growing. When Olena Dubovyk is not working with camouflage netting or making food for the Ukrainian defense forces, she continues to help people in particular need of psychological support, especially children, but also adults. Both she and students who are in the final stages of their psychology education provide psychological support through digital meetings. Parents are also included, so that they can also create as much sense of security as possible in this difficult situation.
“We are the light and hope for our children. We can only save our people by carefully coordinated efforts in these circumstances.”
Repeated plea
Since the invasion, the Ukrainian government has repeatedly appealed to Western countries to establish a no-fly zone for Russian aircraft over the country, a plea that Olena Dubovyk shares and reiterates: “The world must listen to us! Ukrainian cities will continue to be destroyed as long as the sky is open to Russia.”
But NATO has so far been unwilling to confront Russian forces directly, which would be necessary should a no-fly zone be established over Ukraine. In NATO’s assessment, such a measure would risk a rapid escalation of the war.
Erasmus application begun
The European Union has many initiatives to help Eastern European countries build up public agencies and other societal structures that will enable them to apply for future membership in the EU. Max Petzold is one of those who took the initiative for a new Erasmus program for teacher exchanges to strengthen public health systems, not only in Ukraine, but also in Moldova, Georgia and Armenia.
“These countries have suffered greatly from tuberculosis, chemical exposure and radiation, from which we have a lot to learn. At the same time, they lack a holistic approach to mental and social health. We can use the Erasmus program to help them build up modern master’s programs and doctoral education in public health sciences,” says Max Petzold, Professor of Health Science Statistics at the Institute of Medicine.
Few University of Gothenburg projects in the East
The first application for Erasmus was signed by Vice-Chancellor Eva Wiberg only hours before Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. Over the next year, the plan is to extend the application to include doctoral edcuation.
“I feel that interest from the University of Gothenburg in working in Eastern Europe has, to this point, been surprisingly limited compared with other parts of the world. Perhaps this will change once the war is over.”
BY: ELIN LINDSTRÖM
