Universities in exile: displaced scholars count the costs of starting afresh

""I will never forget that Saturday evening when I first saw Russian tanks on the streets of my city," says Viktoriya Voropayeva, a systems engineer and vice-rector at the Donetsk National Technology University (DonNTU). In 2014, after Russian-backed forces took over Donetsk, the unofficial capital of Ukraine's Donbas region, Voropayeva and many of her colleagues chose to leave, setting up their university in exile."

"In April 2022, two months after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the university moved again. It went to Lutsk in northwestern Ukraine, to a building offered by Lutsk National Technical University. Then, seven months later, it moved to its current base in Drohobych in the Lviv region, about 1,050 km from its original home. The city council offered several buildings to turn into offices and classrooms."

Viktoriya Voropayeva witnessed Russian tanks enter Donetsk, prompting her family to flee with only documents, photos and a cat. After Russian-backed forces took Donetsk in 2014, many university staff and students left and reestablished the institution in exile. The university first relocated to Pokrovsk, where about one-third of students and staff occupied academic buildings and dormitories. Some teachers remained because they could not leave family or responsibilities. Following the 2022 full-scale invasion, the university moved to Lutsk and then to Drohobych, operating in smaller facilities with most classes online and a dramatically reduced community.

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