A UKRAINIAN professor forced to flee the ‘apocalyptic’ Russian invasion of his homeland has found a new home at the University of Essex.
Dr Maksym Balaklytskyi, who joined the Department of History, fled the city six days after the invasion.
He was reunited with his wife Iryna and ten-year-old son Nazar in Colchester in January, almost a year after they were separated at the Ukrainian-Polish border.
Dr Balaklytskyi recalled the moment a missile exploded in a neighbouring block and seeing windows blown all around him.
He said: “It was an apocalyptic picture, like from Hollywood.
“There was a sense of fear, but the most unpleasant thing was a sense of total uncertainty.
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“You don’t know what to expect, or how to react, what the actual dangers are or how to prepare for anything.”
Despite being wary of where the frontline was and how safe it was to evacuate, Dr Balaklytskyi headed for the border.
Fearing for their son, his wife and child crossed into Poland, where Dr Balaklytskyi’s parents live, before travelling to the UK after accepting an offer from a sponsor family in Colchester.
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His mother-in-law and her mother remain in Ukraine,
Dr Balaklytskyi is a professor of journalism at the University of Kharkiv and will study the evolution and impact of Russian news and propaganda in Essex.
He said he is “completely happy” in his new British home where he has even been able to meet King Charles III.
As well as exploring Russian propaganda, he hopes to study what he sees as the formation of a more unified Ukrainian identity as a result of the war.
He added: “The Ukrainian cause needs to be normalised and established on a daily basis, regardless of the situation at the front line.
“Academia, culture, social impact, diplomatic relations, diaspora, NGOs are some of the aspects that should be revitalised. Ukraine is here to stay, and it needs able hands on all fronts, so to say”
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Dr Andrew Priest, Head of the Department of History, said: “'We are delighted to welcome Dr Balaklytskyi.
"As an internationally diverse university and a university of sanctuary, with a long-standing commitment to human rights, support for and collaboration with colleagues from countries affected by conflict and other forms of crisis is at the heart of what we do, and who we are.”
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