 As the war in Ukraine continues, its effects are felt around the world. Even here on campus, PhD student Anna Vakarova shares her story. So all my family, all relatives and friends are mostly currently staying in Ukraine. I'm also married to Ukrainian. His family is also staying in Ukraine right now. With both her father and her husband having to stay back to fight, Vakarova feels there's no safe place for Ukrainians to go. There is no way to be safe, not for any Ukrainian, not anywhere in Ukraine, in my country, but around the globe. With the situation changing each minute, every day is a new battle for Vakarova. Every day of mine starts with checking the news and then crying. Every day ends in the same fashion. And every day I am very grateful to every donation, every humanitarian aid. Every minute of thousands of volunteers spent to help my people to get to a safe place, to have food, to provide necessary medication. Living without any food, water or electricity are just some of the hardships her loved ones are facing. So the war caught my family, my friend's family, in a small town here here. And as you might know, currently the majority of Russian forces are collected near here. So they want to block the city and then attack it. So they start by attacking and bombing all the small towns nearby, especially in the northern border. And so my school friend and her family, they were staying in their house in one of the small towns when the war outbroke. And they spent 10 days there without electricity, without any communication, without gas. And then they pretty shortly ran out of food and water. Also, they described that no humanitarian aid could reach that place because it was bombed or shot by Russian troops. Fakarova is hopeful that the Russian sanctions will prove useful over time, but she's concerned. More time means more lives lost. And I don't want to be greedy and selfish, but unfortunately we all see that it's not enough. Maybe we should give it a bit more time so that Russian economy can actually experience all the destroying consequences of the sanctions. But unfortunately every minute or every hour of our delay costs lives of civilians in Ukraine. Through all the hardships and uncertainty, Fakarova says that Ukrainian pride is still high. So the recent events showed how much Ukrainians value their freedom, value their nationality, value their nation, value their country. And I am proud to be Ukrainian more than ever now.