Roughly one year ago, Putin announced an impending “special military operation.” The 5am declaration warned that Moscow would soon invade, fracturing the post-World War Two European peace and undermining the liberal international order. Just over a year after Russia’s unprovoked and illegitimate invasion, the Kremlin has perpetuated the bloodiest conflict in Europe since WW2. The Ukranians, led by President Zelensky, have come to represent the fight for democracy across the globe, as they fend off the Russian onslaught.
But at Harvard, Ukrainian students expressed disappointment at the administration’s immediate response to the crisis. While President Bacow issued a February 28 statement condemning the “deplorable actions of Vladmir Putin,” a plurality of students demanded more action from the university—including the recognition and termination of any financial ties to Russian oligarchs and companies. At the same time, onlookers thought even Bacow’s statement was a step too far, calling it “antithetical to the mission of a university” to express a position on the war.
Nevertheless, Harvard has become a forum for discussing the invasions, its implications, and the prospects of peace. Last fall, President Zelensky delivered a virtual speech to students and staff at the Harvard IOP, calling on the West’s enduring support and aid. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba gave an inspiring talk at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and the JFK Jr. Forum recently hosted an event documenting war crimes in Ukraine.
One year after the initial invasion, Harvard has taken some steps to answer concerns regarding the university’s response, though certain swaths of the student population are undoubtedly still disappointed. Harvard University’s spokesperson Jason A. Newton issued a statement last March saying the university had no direct investments in Russia and claimed to “believe” it had no indirect holdings, though student organizations continued to call for more transparency. On the student level, Harvard has allocated resources to help students navigate the crisis, including promoting fellowships and scholars-at-risk programs to aid those fleeing the conflict, providing school-specific accommodations for affected students, and offering legal support for navigating immigration and refugee systems.
Far from Cambridge, on the front lines of the conflict, the Ukrainian armed forces have presented a “stiffer-than-expected” resistance, frustrating Russian military leaders and damaging Putin’s image. Offensive movements by Ukrainian forces in fall of 2022 began turning the tide, as Russia was forced to retreat from vast swaths of territory. Many such advances have been enabled by an outpouring of support from the international community. NATO unified to rally behind Ukraine, backing Ukrainian defense and bolstering Eastern European forces; sanctions have been levied by more than 30 countries and are putting the pressure on Putin’s logistical and political ability to carry out his war. Europe has moved away from Russian energy sources, barring crude and coal imports and reducing natural gas flows from Siberia. In February, the EU and U.K. banned imports of diesel and gasoline from Moscow. While gaps in support and resistance undoubtedly exist, the response from the international community has largely been one of unequivocal denial of Putin’s ambitions.
For many Harvard students, Putin’s war is more than an academic event or in-class case-study. Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarussian students alike face grief and guilt daily. One Harvard College sophomore, who is from Moscow but ethnically ¾ Ukrainian, recounts how life changed when the war began: “I remember I was checking the news like, literally every hour, I couldn’t focus on anything else. I was just monitoring the situation.” With ties to both Russia and Ukraine, this student explains, “It was very hard to live up to the idea that your country that you genuinely love is destroying [another] country that is … strongly affiliated.”
The conflict has been the impetus for several terrifying developments. In September of 2022, Putin declared his inclination to use “all available means” to end the conflict. Diplomatically, the war in Ukraine has presented Moscow and Beijing greater opportunities to collaborate, including on promoting non-Western financial systems to circumvent international sanctions. In Xi Jinping’s recent trip to Moscow, Beijing worked to position itself as an “honest broker,” between the Russians and Ukrainians, an ambitious position as the mediator for a conflict started by its “no limits” partner. Perhaps most obviously, the conflict has created a mass humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Nearly one-third of Ukraine’s population has been forcibly displaced since the beginning of the conflict, and 17.6 million are in urgent need of assistance and protection.
The international crisis has noticeably seeped into local spaces, specifically impacting the relationship between Russian and Ukrainian students on campus. That same Russian student recalled “[Ukrainian students] talking bad things about Russians … on campus, including … to my face, for no strong reason.”
As the conflict rages on in Eastern Europe, domestic patience for the conflict is dwindling—particularly on the American right. The GOP is split on supporting Ukraine, 41% satisfied or calling for more aid, and 40% advocating for reduced assistance.
Thus far, the anti-aid cohort has taken the legislative lead. Eleven House Republicans have introduced a bill to immediately halt U.S. aid to Ukraine. There are a lot of ways this conflict could end, but a scenario in which Washington’s unilateral retraction of support leads to the defeat of Ukrainian resistance had dire consequences, jeopardizing America’s seat at the head of the global table. This would set back democracy across the world and usher in an era of conflict and instability.
We are one year into a new geopolitical reality. The forces of autocracy—the same ones that drove Putin’s invasion—will not soon subside. Abroad, Washington must remain a beacon of light for democracy, support democratic oppositional movements, and stand up when democracy is challenged. At home, we must defend our own democracy from the threats of partisanship and populism, engage genuinely with the political system, and recognize our shared values. And at Harvard, we must promote meaningful discourse, support our affected peers, and use our four years here to begin crafting a better tomorrow.
Kendall Carll ’26 (kcarll@college.harvard.edu) writes News for the Independent.