Expert Opinions: Russia, Eurasia Harriman Institute at Columbia University

Ukrainian writer and journalist Nikita Grigorov was a university student studying Russian literature at Donetsk National University when Russia launched its war in Donbas in 2014. He supported an independent Ukraine and watched in disbelief as friends turned against him, sometimes violently. Then he fled to Kyiv with his father. Listen to his story.

Spanish journalist Argemino Barro was one of the only foreign correspondents in Donbas when Russia ramped up its destabilization efforts there in 2014. He talks about what it was like to cover the story for a Spanish-language audience.

Tanya Kotelnykova was fourteen years old when Russian-backed separatists occupied Horlivka, her hometown in Eastern Ukraine. She was torn away from her family and has been displaced since.

Christopher Atwood lived in Donetsk in the early 2010s and found himself working in Russia during its initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Listen to his story.

Katia Shraga Davydenko was born in Kyiv in the 1960s. She immigrated to New York in 1992. Since 2014, she has dedicated all her free time to protesting Russia's aggression and volunteering to help Ukrainians.

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