DANYLIW RESEARCH SEMINAR ON CONTEMPORARY UKRAINE

Volia could be translated as will and freedom. A word that embodies the determination of an entire people, and serves as the common thread of the book. Anastasia Fomitchova, born in Kyiv and raised in France, was a PhD student doing field work in Ukraine in 2017 when she signed up as a combat medic on the Donbas front. Immediately after the February Russian invasion, she came back to serve on the Kyiv, Donbas and Kherson fronts, rising her life on multiple occasions and experiencing the surreality of war. Her story is raw, poignant and quite moving. 

​

Anastasia Fomitchova defended her PhD dissertation at the Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Ottawa, in 2024 and received the University Prize of Best Doctoral Thesis in International Affairs in 2025. She lives in Kyiv.