When Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, 2022, Anna Smolko was sleeping in Kyiv. It wasn’t the bombs that woke her up – it was from a phone call telling her the war started.
Smolko stayed in the capital city for two years after the invasion.
In a day, she saw how a city of four million became nearly deserted. During the first month, supermarkets were empty, and around 30,000 Russian soldiers tried to invade Kyiv. Smolko was sleeping in bomb shelters.
“Every Western newspaper gave Kyiv from three days to one week,” Smolko said. “But I always knew that they were wrong and that Kyiv would not fall. It turns out that, yeah, we were right as Ukrainians.”
A year and a half ago, Smolko came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar. She’s now a masters student at Michigan State University.
“After coming to the U.S., I felt a strong responsibility to continue raising awareness about the war,” Smolko said. “I regularly give talks in the East Lansing community about Ukraine and participated in the Global Festival. Last year, in the same space, I organized the exhibition Unissued Diplomas, which honored Ukrainian students who were killed by Russia’s invasion.”
Smolko is continuing to raise awareness about the war this week by bringing a photo exhibition to Mid-Michigan.
Ukraine: War and Resistance showcases photos captured by Ukrainian and American Fulbright Scholars between 2015 and 2023. It’s a travelling gallery created by the Fulbright Ukraine & Institute of International Education Kyiv Office.
The exhibition has visited cities across Europe and North America. It will be on display until the end of March in Snyder Hall on the MSU campus.
Smolko said the war goes beyond the front lines. The exhibit shows many sides of the war, presenting emotions from devastation to resilience.
“You can see killed, wounded soldiers, soldiers with disabilities and funerals,” Smolko said. “But you can also see children that play on the playgrounds in front of burned down houses. You can see couples that are at the war and that are in love.”
Smolko’s favorite photo from the gallery is one of a girl on a playground in front of a burnt neighborhood.
“Despite the disaster and the war and Russia trying to kill Ukrainians, life is still going,” Smolko said. “In Ukraine, we’ll always say that life will always win the death, and we truly believe it. For me, this picture symbolizes it.”
Smolko said her biggest goal in being here is to raise awareness and support for Ukraine.
“The war is still going, and Ukraine continues fights against Russia. Ukraine continues fights for justice,” Smolko said. “I want people to be aware of that even if it's not so often on the news. It's still going.”
Matthew Pauly is a history professor at MSU. He’s a former Fulbright Scholar and served at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv.
Pauly will be a guest speaker at the exhibition’s opening on Tuesday evening. He’ll be discussing the history of the conflict – which started long before the 2022 invasion.
While not internationally recognized, many say the war began in 2014 – not 2022 – when Russia first invaded the country and annexed Crimea.
“In 2014, Ukrainians ousted a corrupt, pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, for reneging on an electoral promise to sign a trade agreement with the European Union,” Pauly said. “The movement – also called Maidan – was based in Kyiv, but had critical support even in Odesa. Putin feared he could no longer control Ukraine, and it was this fear of the loss of a kind of soft empire that motivated his decision to invade.”
Pauly said Russia’s president Vladimir Putin denies the existence of Ukraine as a sovereign nation.
In places where the Russian army occupies, Ukrainian history and language isn’t taught in schools.
“The Russians have been engaged in this campaign since the beginning of the full scale invasion to effectively kidnap Ukrainian children – something on the order of 20,000 Ukrainian children – and re-educate them as citizens of Russia, to have them deny their Ukrainianness and forget the fact that they are Ukraine,” Pauly said.
While many Ukrainians and observers are pessimistic about peace talks, Pauly said the country has defended itself against other nations before and was stronger because of it.
In an article he published in The Conversation, Pauly wrote: “There is every reason to believe that should Kyiv yield, those fighters will continue to wage an insurgency with weapons supplied by their allies. The national movement in Ukraine in 1918 to 1920 was strong enough to complicate, if not defy, Russian and Bolshevik control. And the Ukrainian national idea did not evaporate under Soviet rule. It is likely to animate a tenacious resistance today.”
