Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) – Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula was a defining moment in the life of Stanford undergraduate Catarina Buchatskiy (’24).
Raised in nearby Kyiv, Ukraine, Buchatskiy was 13 years old when this aggressive act by the Kremlin dramatically reshaped the geopolitics of Eastern Europe. Shortly thereafter, she moved to the United States with her family and began high school in Boston, Massachusetts. Still, she has maintained a strong spiritual bond to her homeland.
“The first line of our national anthem is ‘Ukraine has not yet perished,’” Buchatskiy explained in an interview with the Hoover Institution. “Later in the song it says, ‘We’re ready to put our body and our souls down for our freedom.’ That very much describes the spirit of the archetypal Ukrainian, which is also reflected in the nation’s art and folk literature.”
Buchatsky contends that the concept of Ukrainian sovereignty was not born out of the Soviet collapse in 1991. Ukraine had been fighting for its independence since the 1600s, when the Cossack army placed Kyiv and other territories under Tsar Alexis of Russia.
During her senior year of high school, Buchatskiy considered returning to Ukraine for college, but she was urged by her parents to take advantage of educational opportunities in the United States. She was accepted to Stanford and immediately decided to study international relations, with a focus on the deteriorating security situation in her home country.
“I managed to spend a few summers working as an intern in Kyiv, which only increased my determination to help secure peace and sovereignty for Ukraine,” Buchatskiy said.
Buchatskiy explained that her education and life experience prepared her for the reality of a Russian invasion. As the prospect of war became more likely, she moved into action. In January, she co-founded the Shadows Project, an organization with a mission to strengthen Ukrainian identity and counteract information warfare and the historical revisionism of the Russian government. After the war started in late February, her family established a fund to help Ukrainians acquire military aid. In early March, she flew to Poland to help provide humanitarian relief for incoming refugees and to raise money for equipment to protect Ukrainian cultural sites and priceless artwork from being destroyed by Russian bombardments.
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Last fall, Buchatskiy was one of a select number of “student mentees” chosen to participate in the Hoover Institution’s National Security Affairs Fellows program. Each mentee is paired with one of eight fellows representing American armed service branches and the US Foreign Service. Buchatskiy’s mentor, US Navy lieutenant commander Brian Harrington, as well as the director of the program, Morris Arnold and Nona Jean Cox Senior Fellow Amy Zegart, provided valuable insights in support of her efforts.
“I had a lot of abstract ideas and a deep sense of motivation to serve during this current crisis,” Buchatskiy said. “Lieutenant Commander Harrington and Dr. Zegart were immensely helpful to me in forging concrete plans of action.”
On Sunday, March 13, CNN published her essay “This Is How Ukrainians Win the Long War,” which argues that telling the truth about her country’s cultural history is a crucial element in combating the Kremlin’s attempts to blur the lines about Ukraine’s unique national identity.
In our interview with Buchatskiy, she stressed how crucial it is for educational institutions like Stanford and the Hoover Institution to provide a deep understanding of Eastern European history, so that the next generation of Western thought leaders are equipped with accurate information and don’t allow the Russian government’s arguments against Ukrainian sovereignty to remain unchallenged.
Buchatskiy maintains that Putin exploited ignorance of American and European audiences when he justified the 2014 annexation of Crimea, his eight year-long support of separatists in the Eastern Donbas region, and more recently in his declaration of war, on the basis that Ukraine had always been under the influence of a greater Russia.
“This won’t be the last time that the Kremlin challenges our sovereignty,” Buchatskiy said. “The only way we will be left alone in the future is if there is an international consensus about Ukraine’s cultural distinction and historical independence from Russia.”
