Little has captured our attention like the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th of this year. Constituting Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II, the UN estimates that more than 14 million people have fled their homes, with nearly 7 million Ukrainians seeking asylum in neighbouring countries. One of these people is Olena, a 24-year-old Ukrainian national working in the film industry in the suburbs of Kyiv when Russian forces invaded. In this episode, Madison and Sydney sit down with Olena to gain a better insight into what that experience was like being in Ukraine this past February, and what led to Olena’s decision to leave her native country for Poland.

Sydney Stevenson is in the International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies programme at the LSE. During her bachelor’s degree Sydney volunteered with organizations in Montreal, Canada which seek to secure status and resettle refugees. Sydney also is passionate about climate change and climate migration and has worked on multiple research projects surrounding such topics. Madison Jansen is also in the IDHE program at the LSE. Upon completion of her bachelor’s degree in Global Studies and Spanish, Madison moved to Ukraine with the United States Peace Corps where she lived and worked in a small town outside Kyiv. It was in Ukraine where she befriended Olena, and where she became further inspired to pursue a career in international development. Following her time at the LSE, Madison aims to apply her education and passion for Ukraine to aid in the humanitarian response to the war.