In a recent interview with Anastasia Major, Mitchell Institute Honorary Professor Brian Dooley discusses what Kharkiv is like during the war.  Brian has been visiting the city regularly since the war began, speaking with people, listening to their stories, helping to evacuate residents from frontline villages and documenting everything that’s happening including through a series of blogs and reports.  In this interview, Brian and Anastasia discuss how the identity of the people of Kharkiv has changed, how the city is adapting, what’s going on in international politics and the role that outside support plays.  Brian speaks about evacuating people alongside the volunteer group “Rose on the Hand,” and about his colleague Tigran Galustayan, who was killed last year while helping civilians escape.  Read Professor Dooley’s report about the killing of Tigran here.

Watch the interview here.

 

Professor Brian Dooley

Brian Dooley is an Honorary Professor of Practice at the Mitchell Institute and a Senior Advisor at Human Rights First, a US-based NGO.  He specialises in working with Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) in conflict and post-conflict contexts, and was senior advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on HRDs, Mary Lawlor, from 2020 to 2023.  His most recent work has been in the Hong Kong revolution and on Russia’s war on Ukraine.  He has also written two books related to the conflict in Northern Ireland, including a comparative study of the civil rights movements in the US and Northern Ireland.