This New Year morning I received a message from a KSE student. Sharing it with permission, because it clearly explains why we are building a university in Ukraine without “schemes” and corruption
“Some time ago, I dropped out of a university in Kharkiv... 1/
I studied there for a year. I saw assignments designed so that students would cheat, and professors would ‘give grades out of thin air’. 2/
I saw corruption, professors aged 85+, and people who watch Russia-1 while living in Belgium. And when, during a thesis defense, I heard a classmate talking to a professor about how much he paid for the code - 3/
Hodges: The only way that Putin would not fill in to whatever part that Ukrainian troops came out of would be if there were thousands of American, German, British, French soldiers sitting there. Otherwise it will be a very short amount of time before you have Russian troops. 1/
Hodges: The fact that Ukraine can reach out and start hitting ships in the Mediterranean or in the Caspian Sea damages Russia's energy industry, jacks up insurance prices, makes companies less willing to take the risk. This is an important part of Ukraine's theory of victory. 2/
Hodges: Article 5 — an armed attack on one shall be considered an armed attack on all. If Russia attacked Ukraine again, that would be as if Russia had attacked the United States. Do you really think this administration would actually do something about it? 3X
“They executed my comrade Yura. Then showed me a bag with pieces of skin he had cut off.
He wanted to cut off my neck tattoo for his collection and cut off my arm. My last name saved me they thought I was Armenian” — Vasyl Davydian, Ukrainian POW, after 3 years in captivity. 1/
Vasyl: They burned my tattoo with a taser until it faded. Beatings were constant — stun guns, pipes, hammers, hands, feet.
They beat my nose, ears and groin. They shocked my tongue until I couldn’t speak. When I said my tongue was gone, they replied: We’ll cut it off anyway. 2/
Vasyl: They tried to sterilize us. I have cysts and tumors in the groin, but I’ll be able to have children. Two men with heart conditions asked for help.
A doctor was promised for tommorow. By morning, one was dead. I asked twice. The answer: “You’ll be treated in Ukraine.” 3/
For two days, he shared dry bread with a chicken while evacuating from eastern Ukraine, after a Russian drone struck his home and burned it to the ground. — Suspilne 1/
Konstantyn Oleksiiovych, 89, left his village in the Dobropillia community in Donetsk region in his own car. He took with him the only living being he had left — a small red chicken. 2/
For two days, he slept in the car and ate dry bread together with the bird while moving away from the frontline. His house was completely destroyed by the drone strike. 3/