Dear Vail Symposium community,
On March 6, 2025, we welcomed Elina Beketova and Natalia Feduschak to our valley to present a program called “On the Ground in Ukraine: Voices of Resilience.” Elina is a Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis and a longtime journalist and tv reporter in Ukraine. Natalia is the Director of Communication at the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter and was a Fulbright Scholar and a longtime journalist covering the former Soviet Union.
Many audience members requested additional resources to dive deeper into the complexities of the region and the impacts of the full-scale invasion by Russia that began on February 24, 2022. Below, find links mentioned in the program and recommended by the panelists. We are also grateful to locals Kelli and Kreston Rohrig (founders of Limbs for Liberty Ukraine) for sharing direct accounts from their Ukrainian contacts.
With sincere gratitude from the team at Vail Symposium.
Mentioned in the Program
Reporting by Journalist Anne Applebaum.
Elina’s series of articles about the temporarily occupied territories.
The official fundraiser for Ukraine operated by the Ukrainian government.
Razom for Ukraine is an organization operating our of offices in Ukraine directly serving the Ukrainian people.
More from Elina Beketova
Book recommendation:
“Decolonizing Ukraine: the Indigenous People of Crimea and Pathways to Freedom,” Greta Lynn Uehling
The small NGO in Kyiv helping internally displaced people and rehabilitation of military personnel (Elina can provide their direct contacts if needed).
Elina’s email for anyone interested in Ukraine: elina.beketova@cepa.org
More from Natalia Feduschak
History of Ukraine
“Ukraine: The Forging of a Nation,” Yaroslav Hrytsak (Public Affairs, 2023)
“The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine,” Serhii Plokhy (Basic Books, 2015)
Contemporary History of Ukraine
“Battleground Ukraine, From Independence to the War with Russia,” Adrian Karatnycky (Yale University Press, 2024)
Russo-Ukraine War
“Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence,” Yaroslav Trofimov (Penguin Press, 2024)
“Intent to Destroy: Russia’s Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine,” Eugene Finkel (Basic Books, 2024)
“The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History,” Serhii Plokhy (WW Norton and Co., 2023)
Essays by Ukrainian writers, available in English on the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter website
About Eastern Ukraine
“Ukrainian Sunrise: Stories of the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions from the Early 2000s,” Kateryna Zarembo (Academic Studies Press, 2024)
“Ukraine War Love: A Donetsk Diary,” Olena Stiazhkina (Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 2024) (as part of the Harvard Library of Ukrainian Literature)
Family Histories
“No Country for Love,” Yaroslav Trofimov (Abacus, 2025). This is a fiction novel based on the author’s family history in Ukraine spanning 1930-1954.
“The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story, A Memoir,” Victoria Belim (Abrams Press, 2023)
“Ukraine is Not Dead Yet, A Family Story of Exile and Return,” Megan Buskey (Ibidem, 2023)
