Badger Club’s virtual guest from Ukraine will give Tri-Cities rare look at Russian invasion | Opinion

Greetings from Kyiv!

I am Alexander Biryukov, a professor at the Private International Law Department of the Institute of International Relations at the National University of Kyiv.

At noon on Thursday, April 27, I will speak to the Columbia Basin Badger Club during a special virtual forum, “A Postcard from Kyiv.” It is an opportunity for a Ukrainian to express a truthful gratefulness to Americans who from the first moment of this war remain the biggest supporters in this nation’s fight for democratic values, and finally existence of the nation. I believe that without your support, Ukraine would become a part of an Empire of Evil that would threaten the whole world.

I plan to talk about several things during my presentation, and then answer as many of your questions as we have time for in the hour-long forum. I understand that following the forum, the Badger Club will offer a special segment where we will switch from Zoom webinar mode to regular Zoom so that I can talk with our viewers person-to-person.

My family and I live in the northern suburbs of Kyiv in an apartment block. The Russian advance in the early days of the war was stopped at the town of Bucha and Irpin, near Gostomel airdrome — the place where on the first day of the war, 34 helicopters with a special operations unit landed to try to catch Kyiv City off guard.

Now, after almost 14 months of war, daily life goes on. Air raid sirens announce incoming Russian missile attacks every day. I still teach classes at the university. In my presentation, I plan to discuss daily life in Kyiv, showing pictures of my family and our neighborhood (including nearby areas that have been shelled), and standard street scenes of daily life in Kyiv.

Since the beginning of the war, we have gone through a range of emotions: first shock, then an understanding that we need to survive, and now adapting to a new reality that we may be engaged in a terrorist war that might go on for years.

As we follow the rapidly-changing accounts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is important to understand the history and context of what led to the first land war in Europe since World War II. I will review the nation’s geography, ethnic nationalities, religion, history, and culture, with an emphasis on the past 100 years leading to Ukraine’s tilt to the West and Putin’s geo-political motivations for wanting Ukraine back under the Russian influence.

I was born in the Donbas region of Ukraine now under Russian occupation, grew up and was educated under the communist ideology, and passed through all the stages required of a communist society member. I studied law in Moscow at the Peoples’ Friendship University named after Patrice Lumumba, graduating in 1984.

I was honored to be awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and studied at the New York University School of Law and then at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. While there, I first met C. Mark Smith, the chairman of your Badger Club Program Committee, who was responsible for Birmingham’s sister city relationship with Krasnodon (now in Russian hands) in Luhansk Province. Since then, we have remained in infrequent, but continuing, email contact over these many years.

We began communicating more frequently after the Russian invasion and Mark asked me to speak to the Badger Club. It seems quite unbelievable, that after 28 years of living on different continents, we will participate together with Badger Club members and viewers during the April 27 program. I very much look forward to it.

To register for this special event, which will include a Q&A session, visit the website at columbiabasinbadgers.com to receive a confirmation and link to join the Zoom forum. Cost is $5 for nonmembers, while club members can join for free.

Dr. Oleksandr (Alex) Biryukov teaches international law at the Institute of International Relations at the National University of Kyiv. He was educated in Moscow and grew up under the communist system. Selected as a Fulbright Scholar, he studied at New York University and at the Cumberland School of Law at Stamford University in Birmingham, Alabama. He has consulted on international law with the World Bank. His most recent work, published this year, is titled International Law and Frozen Conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Biryukov is a legal advisor with more than 25 years of legal experience consulting international donors, including USAID, TACIS/European Commission, the World Bank, WTO, who have funded projects in Ukraine.