‘I had to be here.’ Pittsburgh professor travels home to Ukraine before Russia attack

Days before Russian military forces began an invasion on the country’s southwest neighbor, Tymofiy Mylovanov made the decision to travel back to his native country Ukraine.

He has a job in the United States, where he is an associate professor of economics at University of Pittsburgh, but Mylovanov’s heart was elsewhere. His extended family members are in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine that was met with an attack early Thursday, Feb. 24.

“I had to be here,” Mylovanov said Thursday afternoon in an interview with McClatchy News.

Mylovanov arrived in Kyiv on Monday, Feb. 21 — three days before Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine on three fronts, “bombarding cities, towns and villages” as forces advanced toward Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that his military forces are protecting citizens in eastern Ukraine who want to rejoin Russia, BBC News reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Joe Biden have rejected those claims.

“I was here in January and we have already seen the escalation,” Mylovanov said. “We have been bracing for it.”

It culminated while Mylovanov was asleep early Thursday, with CNN reporting Ukraine’s border was infiltrated by Russian troops around 5 a.m.

Mylovanov wrote on Twitter when he learned what was happening, “I hope it is not true.”

“I woke up this morning to the sound of it,” the professor told McClatchy News. “I didn’t know what that was. Air ground missiles they say. That was no fun. It took us some time to figure out what was going on.”

As of Thursday afternoon, 57 Ukrainians were killed from the invasion and 169 were injured, The Associated Press reported.

Mylovanov said the city has strict safety protocols in place, but life is otherwise normal. Grocery stores are open, as are gas stations and banks, he said.

As the invasion continues, he will give his lectures for University of Pittsburgh online. Mylovanov also serves as the president of the Kyiv School of Economics.

In the few days since he has been back home, Mylovanov said he has been impressed with the “resilience” of the Ukrainians.

“Some in shock, meaning that they do not understand what is happening, but I am surprised at the degree of order of Kyiv and other cities,” he said.

Mylovanov has remained optimistic for his country, saying hours after the attacks began that it “will defend itself and will come out victorious.” But he wants people to believe the invasion “is real.”

“It’s not some kind of conflict within separatists and some people somewhere in a not very well-known country,” he told WTAE. “It’s really about what’s going to happen in Europe in the next 20 to 50 years.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 2:11 PM with the headline "‘I had to be here.’ Pittsburgh professor travels home to Ukraine before Russia attack."