Talks & Interviews
On Russia's war against Ukraine
talks, interviews and publications
'In Ukraine, we are all carrying phantom pain', Prospect, 16 May 2023.
'Why the West underestimated Ukraine', The New Statesman, 20 December 2022.
'No, Putin didn't awaken Ukraine', The New York Times, 1 November 2022.
'Olesya Khromeychuk’s diary: Returning to Ukraine—and my brother’s grave', Prospect Magazine, 6 October 2022.
'Putin's regime is banking on western Ukraine fatigue', Prospect, 17 September 2022.
'What it's like to lose a loved one in a war that's live on social media', Daily Mail, 1 September 2022.
With Uilleam Blacker, 'Foreword: Ukrainian Women Poets. How can faith, hope, and love live in a space of pain', The Continental Literary Magazine, 2 June 2022. 'Laat je niks wijsmaken, dit is een Europese oorlog', NRC, 3 June 2022 (English version: 'Don't be fooled, this is a European war').
'Where is Ukraine?' RSA Journal, 2 May 2022.
'The Nation Ukraine Has Become' coauthored with Sonya Bilocerkowycz, The New York Review of Books, 25 March 2022.
»Wir kämpfen für das Recht, eine Zukunft zu haben«, Der Spiegel, 23 March 2022 (English version: ‘We are fighting for a right to have a future’).
'"He has decided to destroy the whole world"': Six global voices on Putin's invasion of Ukraine', CNN Opinion, 2 March 2022.
'My Ukrainian brother was killed on the frontline - he was right when he said this is a European war', Metro, 25 February 2022.
Russian War on Ukraine: the Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister, organised by the London School of Economics, a talk and panel discussion with Paul Mason and Luke Cooper, 27 April 2023. WATCH
‘Prove Who You Are: The Face of Ukrainian Culture Today', panel discussion at London Book Fair, 20 April 2023.
‘You Cannot Mute the Truth: Ukrainian Publishing Market During the War', panel discussion at London Book Fair, 19 April 2023.
Bibliotopia literary festival, in conversation with Philippe Sands, organised by the Jan Michalski Foundation, 31 March - 2 April 2023. WATCH
'Dialogues on War' Olesya Khromeychuk in conversation with Timothy Garton Ash, organised by PEN Ukraine, 30 March 2023. WATCH
'The War in Ukraine: How Does It End?', panel discussion with Anne Applebaum, Orlando Figes and Max Hastings, chaired by Clive Myrie organised by the Southbank Centre and Intelligence Squared, 23 March 2023. WATCH
Contemporary Writers' Readings, University of Cambridge, 14 March 2023.
‘Solidarity with Ukraine', panel discussion at a conference organised by London School of Economics, 11 March 2023.
'Women in the army: the case of Ukraine'. Keynote address at the International Women’s Day conference organised by Doughty Street Chambers, 4 March 2023.
Panel discussion: 'What's next for Ukraine', organised by Jewish Book Week, 26 February 2023.
'Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine: What has the last year taught us?', panel discussion with General Sir Richard Shirreff, Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, Professor Timothy Garton Ash and Yulia Osmolovskaya, organised by the Centre for European Reform, 23 February 2023.
Public talk at St Antony's, University of Oxford, Underestimating Ukraine and overestimating Russia: one year on from the full-scale invasion, 20 February 2023
Public talk at the University of Melbourne, (Re)Discovering Ukraine in the Context of Russia’s War, 9 February 2023.
Public talk at the Australian National University, Choosing Freedom in Ukraine, 7 February 2023.
Public talk at the University of Sydney, Sydney Ideas: Ukraine: the country that surprised the world, 2 February 2023. WATCH
Public talk at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, US, 10 January 2023.
Public talk at the Ukrainian Institute of America, New York, US, 8 January 2023.
'Russia's war against Ukraine in historical perspective', panel discussion at the American Historical Association, 7 January 2023.
'Writing History. Narrating War', public talk at George Mason University, 14 November 2022. WATCH
Ukrainian Cultural Night, panel discussion at the Literature Museum Ireland, coorganised by Creative Europe Ireland and Ukrainian-Irish Cultural Platform, 11 November 2022.
Discussion of The Death of a Soldier with Roger Moorhouse at Tring Book Festival, 8 November 2022. WATCH
'Choosing Freedom in Ukraine: Historical Roots and Contemporary Meaning', Oskar Halecki 2022 lecture, organised by Leibniz-Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europa (GWZO) 27 October 2022. WATCH
'Historical Roots and Contemporary Understanding of Russia's War in Ukraine', public talk at Osteuropa-Institut Tübingen, 24 October 2022.
Writing to Combat Conflict and Corruption, panel discussion at the London Literature Festival, Southbank Centre, 23 October 2022.
'Writing Ukraine', panel discussion at the American Library in Paris, 18 October 2022. WATCH
'Discovering Ukraine and Reimagining Europe in the context of Russia's War in Ukraine', keynote address at 'La guerre en Ukraine. Regards depuis la frontière européenne', organised by L'École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS, Paris), 17 October 2022.
'Slava Ukraini!', panel discussion at Cliveden Literary Festival, 15 October 2022. WATCH
'When War Comes to Your Home', panel discussion at Cheltenham Literary Festival, 11 October 2022.
Historians in Times of War: Reflections on Their Role in Media and Public since February 2022, panel discussion at the German Association for East European Studies congress, 6 October 2022.
Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University, Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program Book Club, discussion with Emily Channell-Justice, 5 October 2022. WATCH
'From Annexation to War: Russia's aggression in Ukraine', panel discussion at the LSE European Institute, 3 October 2022. WATCH
'Telling Ukrainian Stories in the Ninth Year of War', public talk at Vienna Humanities Festival, 1 October 2022. WATCH
'Continuities and discontinuities in Ukrainian history', panel discussion at The Russo-Ukrainian War, British Academy, 28 September 2022.
'Epistemic (dis)trust: learning from "the other Europe", University of Melbourne, Solidarity series, 16 September 2022.
Keynote address on Russia's war in Ukraine at HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) conference 'Humanities in Crisis, Crisis in Humanities', Wrocław, 8 September 2022.
'Tocqueville Conversations', panel discussion organised by the Tocqueville Foundation, Le Figaro, the Atlantic Council, 7-9 July 2022. WATCH
'Narrating and Consuming Russia's War in Ukraine'. Keynote speech at Emotions, Populism and Polarised Politics, Media and Culture conference, Helsinki, 16 June 2022.
'Ukraine: Causes, consequences and implications for global security', panel discussion organised by York Festival of Ideas, 19 June 2022. WATCH
'Memory Wars: The Use and Abuse of History in Great Power Politics', panel discussion organised by Egmont, Royal Institute for International Relations and the Latvian Embassy in Belgium, Brussels, 18 May 2022.
'Identities. Ukraine and Russia: The imagination of a region'. Public talk organised by the University of Amsterdam and Academic Cultural Centre, Amsterdam, 16 May 2022.
'The future of Europe in light of Russia's war against Ukraine', panel discussion organised by the University of Graz, Graz, 13 May 2022. WATCH
‘Ukrainian people’s resilience in the face of Russia’s invasion’. Public talk organised by The Durham Union, 27 April 2022.
'Russia's war against Ukraine', panel discussion organised by Cambridge Literary Festival and Cambridge University Ukrainian Society, Cambridge, 24 April 2022. WATCH
'Ukrainian (and East European) Studies Now', panel discussion organised by European University Viadrina, 14 April 2022. WATCH
‘Where is Ukraine on the mental map of the academic community?’ Keynote speech at the British Association of Slavonic and East European Studies conference, Cambridge, 8 April 2022. WATCH
'Dispatches from Ukraine: voices of resistance', a discussion co-organised by the Ukrainian Institute London and The Frontline Club, featuring Stanislav Aseyev, Nataliya Gumenyuk, Isobel Koshiw and Olga Tokariuk. WATCH
‘A Pair of Boots’, an extract from her book 'A Loss: The Story of a Dead Soldier Told by His Sister' read at 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘷𝘢 𝘜𝘬𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪, a fundraiser organised by the Southbank Centre, the Royal Festival Hall, 22 March 2022.
'(Mis)understanding Ukraine and Russia's War', 36th Annual Ivan Franko Memorial Lecture, organised by the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa and the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association Ottawa Chapter UCPBA Ottawa, on 16 March 2022. WATCH
Interviewed by Ian Bond for the Centre for European Reform podcast alongside Sir Richard Shirreff, former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, about Russia's war in Ukraine, 26 February 2023.
'HARDtalk' interviewed by Stephen Sackur, 22 February 2023. Watch here. Listen here.
'Ukraine's Long War', podcast for New Lines Magazine, 17 February 2023.
‘Inaction supports Putin’s escalation’: World must keep standing up to Russia, historian says, The Guardian, 5 February 2023.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute podcast, Policy, Guns & Money, 10 February 2023.
'Battleground Ukraine', podcast with Saul David and Patrick Bishop, 20 January 2023.
'Ukrainecast', interviewed by Lucy Hockings and Vitaly Shevchenko, BBC, 4 January 2023.
'Why the world misunderstands Ukraine', World Review (The New Statesman podcast), 2 January 2022.
'How is Ukraine coping with the trauma of war?', interviewed by Anne McElvoy, The Economist, 8 December 2022.
'History and Context', The Kyiv Independent's Power Lines: From Ukraine to the World podcast, 6 October 2022.
Discussion with Peter Jukes and Hardeep Matharu, BylineTV, 23 September 2022.
'Vladimir Putin is not solely to blame for the Russian invasion that killed my brother in Ukraine', interviewed by Rob Hastings, The i Paper, 8 September 2022.
Interview, BBC New (Ukrainian), 1 September 2022.
Guest on Jon Snow's 'What if Putin Goes Nuclear', Channel 4, 19 March 2022.
Panellist on BBC One Question Time, 9 March 2022.
Christiane Amanpour, Impact of Putin's war on Ukrainian women, CNN, 8 March 2022.
Historikerin Olesya Khromeychuk über Frauen im Ukraine-Krieg, WDR 3 Kultur am Mittag Von Cornelia Wegerhoff, 8 March 2022.
Julian Evans, 'Why Putin is obsessed with Ukraine and Russia being "one people"', The Telegraph, 6 March 2022.
Christopher Hope, 'To Ukraine, with love', Chopper's Politics, 4 March 2022.
'Day of intense attacks on Ukrainian cities', The World Tonight, 3 March 2022.
'Ukrainian Catholic bishop warns British people to avoid disinformation about war', The Independent, 2 March 2022.
'Ukrainian women on the front line', Woman's Hour, 28 February 2022.
'What can the West do to help Ukraine?' openDemocracy, 28 February 2022.
„Putin leugnet immer wieder, dass Ukrainer eine eigene Nation bilden“, Olesya Khromeychuk in conversation with Paul Simon, Berliner Zeitung, 29 Jan 2022.
'Why Putin has his sights on Ukraine', Ritula Shah in conversation with Olesya Khromeychuk, Olga Tokariuk, Angela Stent and Maxim Samoroukov, BBC World Service, 27 Jan 2022.
'Ukraine’s democratic outlook after 30 years of independence'. Public discussion organised by ForumCiv, Nordic Ukraine Forum and Östgruppen, 8 Dec 2021. Full recording.
'Memory politics: the challenge of commemoration in post-Soviet Eastern Europe and the Caucasus', Chatham House, 5 Oct 2021. Full recording. ‘At the Front Line. Ukrainian Art, 2013-2019’. Public talk organised by the Museum of Memory and Tolerance (Mexico City), 19 Oct 2019. ‘History and Memory Politics in a Militarised Society’. Public lecture organised by the Ukrainian Catholic University (L’viv), 11 April 2019. ‘Fraternal Peoples? History, Memory and Politics in the Ukraine Crisis’. Lecture at ‘Putin, Russia and the World’, a day school organised by Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education (Oxford), 24 Sept 2016. ‘Negotiating Protest Spaces on the Maidan: a Gender Perspective’. Guest lecture organised by Forum Transregionale Studien, held at Osteuropa-Institut, Freie Universität (Berlin), 28 Apr 2016. ‘Resistance and Gender: the Ukrainian Nationalist Movement of the 1930s-1950s and its Relevance to Contemporary Ukraine’. Lecture at ‘Resistance in Russia and Eastern Europe’ Lecture Series organised by Cambridge Committee for Russian and East European Studies (Cambridge, UK), 2 May 2013.
Keynote lectures
'Women in the army: the case of Ukraine'. Keynote address at the International Women’s Day conference organised by Doughty Street Chambers, 4 March 2023. Public talk at the University of Sydney, Sydney Ideas: Ukraine: the country that surprised the world, 2 February 2023.
'Choosing Freedom in Ukraine: Historical Roots and Contemporary Meaning', Oskar Halecki 2022 lecture, organised by Leibniz-Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europa (GWZO) 27 October 2022.
'Discovering Ukraine and Reimagining Europe in the context of Russia's War in Ukraine', keynote address at 'La guerre en Ukraine. Regards depuis la frontière européenne', organised by L'École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris, 17 October 2022.
Keynote speech on Russia's war in Ukraine at HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) conference 'Humanities in Crisis, Crisis in Humanities', Wrocław, 8 September 2022.
'Narrating and Consuming Russia's War in Ukraine'. Keynote speech at Emotions, Populism and Polarised Politics, Media and Culture conference, Helsinki, 16 June 2022.
‘Where is Ukraine on the mental map of the academic community?’ Keynote speech at the British Association of Slavonic and East European Studies conference, Cambridge, 8 April 2022.
'Misunderstanding Ukraine and Russia’s War', the 36th Annual Ivan Franko Memorial Lecture, organised by the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa and the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association (UCPBA) Ottawa Chapter, 16 March 2022.
'Militarism and feminism, or how to write servicewomen into the history of war'. Keynote speech at 'Women's Dimensions of the Past', organised by the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, the Ukrainian Association for Research in Women's History and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Ukraine, 8 June 2021.
'Ukraine's legacy of the past and vision for the future'. Keynote speech at 'Modernization 2021: the Role of Governance and Institutions' conference, organised by VoxUkraine, 27 April 2021.
“Because you are a woman!” The dilemmas of women’s participation in protest and war in Ukraine’. Keynote speech at the 2nd International Women’s Day: Women in Peace and Conflict Conference, The Archbishop Desmond Tutu Centre for War and Peace Studies, Liverpool Hope University (Liverpool), 9 Mar 2016.
Invited public lectures
'Ukraine’s democratic outlook after 30 years of independence'. Public discussion organised by ForumCiv, Nordic Ukraine Forum and Östgruppen, 8 Dec 2021. Full recording.
'Memory politics: the challenge of commemoration in post-Soviet Eastern Europe and the Caucasus', Chatham House, 5 Oct 2021. Full recording.
‘At the Front Line. Ukrainian Art, 2013-2019’. Public talk organised by the Museum of Memory and Tolerance (Mexico City), 19 Oct 2019. ‘History and Memory Politics in a Militarised Society’. Public lecture organised by the Ukrainian Catholic University (L’viv), 11 April 2019. ‘Fraternal Peoples? History, Memory and Politics in the Ukraine Crisis’. Lecture at ‘Putin, Russia and the World’, a day school organised by Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education (Oxford), 24 Sept 2016. ‘Negotiating Protest Spaces on the Maidan: a Gender Perspective’. Guest lecture organised by Forum Transregionale Studien, held at Osteuropa-Institut, Freie Universität (Berlin), 28 Apr 2016. ‘Resistance and Gender: the Ukrainian Nationalist Movement of the 1930s-1950s and its Relevance to Contemporary Ukraine’. Lecture at ‘Resistance in Russia and Eastern Europe’ Lecture Series organised by Cambridge Committee for Russian and East European Studies (Cambridge, UK), 2 May 2013.
Photos: Chatham House (2021), Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Kyiv (2016).
Invited research seminar talks
'Performing Trauma: the Donbas War on Stage'. Public talk at 'Uprootedness & Hybridity: Researching Eastern-European intergenerational trauma in the arts and theatre' seminar, organised by Counterpoints Arts (online), 19 June 2021.
‘Why history needs gender and gender needs history: researching and teaching “male” topics, history and memory politics’. Guest lecture at ‘Theory and Practice of Gender Studies’ workshop, organised by the Centre for Interethnic Relations (Kharkiv), 29-30 Mar 2019. ‘Militarizing Women in the Ukrainian Nationalist Movement of the 1930s-1950s’. Guest lecture organised by UCL Russian Studies Seminar, UCL SSEES (London), 11 Oct 2017. ‘Women in the Maidan Protests and the Conflict in Donbas: Participation and Perception’. Guest lecture at the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds (Leeds), 14 Mar 2017. ‘From the Maidan to the Donbas: Ukrainian Women in Protest and War’. Guest lecture at the University of Tromsø (Tromsø), 3 March 2017. ‘The “Undetermined” Ukrainians of the Waffen SS: from Surrendered Enemy Personnel to Civilian Life in the West’. Lecture organised by Modern European History seminar series, UEA (Norwich), 2 Dec 2015. ‘The Re-construction of WWII Memory and its Contemporary Political Framing in Ukraine. The Case of the Waffen SS “Galicia”’. Lecture at East European Memory Studies seminar series, organised by the Cambridge Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (Cambridge, UK), 4 Nov 2009.
Photos: The Frontline Club, London (2018), Liverpool Hope University (2016), ASN, New York (2017).
Invited conference talks
‘Historical memory and conflict in Ukraine’ at the conference ‘Remembering the Past in the Conflicts of the Present: Civil Society and Contested Histories in the Post-Soviet Space (1991 – 2017)’ organised by the University of Bern and Swiss National Science Foundation (Tbilisi), 20-22 Jun 2019. ‘Representing War’ at the symposium 'Depicting Donbas: Creative and Critical Responses to the War in Ukraine', organised by Birkbeck School of Arts and UCL SSEES, Birkbeck (London), 25-26 Apr 2019. ‘Instrumentalisation of War History in Contemporary Memory Politics in Ukraine. A Gender Perspective’, at the conference ‘Official History in Eastern Europe. Transregional Perspectives’, organised by German Historical Institute Warsaw, the University of Geneva and the Forum Transregionale Studien Berlin (Warsaw), 13-14 Jun 2018. ‘War and the Production of Heroes’, at the conference ‘Heroes of Our Times?’, organised by Evangelische Akademie Tutzing and Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung) (Tutzing), 1-3 Dec 2017. ‘Women in the Red Army during the Second World War and Contemporary Memory Politics’, at the conference ‘An Ambiguous Past. Soviet Heritage through the Prism of Modernisation’, organised by Heinrich Böll Stiftung and Historians.in.ua (Kyiv), 17-19 Mar 2017. ‘Glory to the Heroes? Gender, Nationalism and Memory’, at the conference ‘Contested Memories of the Difficult Past. Eastern Europe and Its History of the 20th Century’, organised by Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung) (Kyiv), 29 Sept – 2 Oct 2016. ‘Women in the Maidan Protests and the Conflict in Donbas’, at the symposium to mark the 75th birthday of Professor Arnold McMillin, ‘Between the Lands. A journey from Poland to Russia via Belarus and Ukraine’, UCL SSEES (London), 23-25 Jun 2016. ‘The Condemnation of Totalitarian Regimes in Ukraine: the Challenges of Selective Remembering’, at the conference ‘Mapping Memories of Post-1989 Europe’, organised by Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung) (Vienna), 29-30 Nov 2015. ‘Living in the Past: the Dilemmas of Remembering Nationalist Military Organisations of the Second World War in Contemporary Ukraine’, at the conference ‘The Political Cult of the Dead in Ukraine: Traditions and Dimensions from Soviet Times to Today’, organised by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Munich), 9-11 Jul 2015. ‘Women on the Maidan’, at the ‘Platform Ukraine’ symposium, UCL SSEES (London), 19 Sept 2014. ‘The Search for ‘Heroic’ Origins in Ukrainian Historical Narrative’, at the conference ‘“Heroes” and “antiheroes” in the European Political and Historiographical Tradition’, organised by Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Kyiv and Internet portal Historians.in.ua (Kyiv), 4-5 Oct 2012. Circumstances and Motivations of Ukrainians Serving in German Armed Forces’, at an expert roundtable organised by the Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter Initiative (Potsdam/Berlin), 27-29 Jun 2011.
Other selected conference talks
‘Female Fighters in WWII and Contemporary Ukraine: Experiences and Perceptions’, at the conference ‘Gender-Power-Eastern Europe’, organised by Freie Universität, (Berlin), 21-23 Jun 2017. ‘The Other Half of the Revolution: Gender and Nationalism on the Maidan’, at the annual convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities, Columbia University (New York), 23-25 Apr 2015. ‘Who is your hero? Glorification and Villainization Practices in the Context of Second World War Memory in Ukraine’, at the annual conference of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (Cambridge, UK), 6-9 Apr 2013. ‘The Construction and Re-construction of the ‘Historical Truth’ and Memory of the Waffen SS “Galicia” Division in Ukraine and the Diaspora’, at the conference ‘Genealogies of Memory. Regions of Memory. A Comparative Perspective on Eastern Europe’ (Warsaw), 26-28 Nov 2012. ‘Ukrainian Female Fighters during the Second World War: Memory and its Absence’, at the annual convention of the Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies, (Washington), 17-20 Nov 2011.
Photo: German Historical Institute, Warsaw (2018).