There used to be caps and gowns and nibbles, but Mariupol State University was only able to hold a simple ceremony for the class of 2023 on Thursday at its exile campus, nearly 400 miles from its devastated home city.
Out of 500 graduates, only about 60 were here in Kiev to pick up their diplomas in person in a new university house still under development. The rest participated online if possible, scattered throughout Ukraine and abroad due to the war.
It was a bittersweet moment for the graduates of Mariupol, a city that became synonymous with the brutality and devastation of war before falling prey to the Russian invasion last year. Even in virtual form, the university offered a sense of moving towards something beyond the war, and an oasis from the brutal reality they’ve all seen and felt, never quite out of their minds.
Valeriya Tkachenko, 21, continued her studies in ecology and education, even as her husband, Vladislav, underwent treatment and rehabilitation after losing a leg in the battle for Azovstal, the sprawling steel mill where Mariupol’s defenders made their final stand before surrendering in May 2022.
“It was very hard to concentrate, but our lessons distracted from the war; I can even say some sort of rescue,” she said.
Karolina Borovikova, 23, left for Italy four days before the invasion on an exchange program and stayed there, but her husband, Nikita, remained in Mariupol and also fought in the battle for Azovstal. On Thursday she obtained a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in Italian translation, but Nikita was not there. He’s a prisoner of war in Russia and she hasn’t heard from him since May.
“Every day I dream about the first day we will be reunited, and I think about how I will help him overcome the ordeal he is going through now,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I don’t know how to help him, and I don’t know how to get him out of there.”
