UzhNU students support the Ukrainian Army’s deep strike escalations against Moscow, and warned, even in the Carpathian mountains, russia wants to create the illusion that no matter where you go in Ukraine,you’re not safe…
3 July, 2026
Amid increased targeting, I visited the road less taken, in Uzhgorod National University last week to see where students stand on Ukraine’s escalations against russia.
From an international perspective, Uzhgorod has a very unique geopolitical position being directly on the border of Hungary and Slovakia as well as its regional proximity to Poland and Romania.
And, (since Hungarian politics has long held a special place within the cold black hole of my heart – a necessity for me, no thanks to the bad behavior of certain American politicians who just couldn’t keep their hand out of the ruble jar…..), under the former Hungarian regime of Viktor Orban, Hungary has tried to assert its claims to Ukraine’s Transcarpathian territory.
So I went to Uzhgorod to scope out the political (and military) situation..
and I found that the patriotic disposition is as pure Ukrainian as it gets. Flags, military symbols, and Ukrainian language ring throughout the vibrant city. Just take a look at this iconic image I snapped of the community’s Ivana Kupala festival, burning a Matrioshka dressed as “mother russia”:
As far as military goes, lots of Centuria insignia all over the place, as well as Azov, and, shocking for me, one can hear overhead aircraft which I assume is military helicopters patrolling the skies.
However, I wanted to dig deeper, so in order to understand the region’s national disposition better, I decided to visit a place where I knew ideas and opinions would be freely exchanged, at Uzhgorod National University.
To get to the University, my GPS led me toward two roads which split off from each other… and… just like the famous American poem, I followed the road less taken……..
lots of dirt, stone, concrete rubble.. the occasional abandoned truck….everywhere vertically laden with grapevine,……… threatening yet inviting at the same time… one cannot help but question oneself, should I really be going here? It is very rugged…. very….. Ukrainian ………
I had not actually planned on going to the University ahead of time, I just woke up on Monday and had this feeling I should go there… like it would all make sense amid the current journey I’ve been on….
On the way I was asking myself what questions I would field….
A little over a month before starting this piece, I had begun to track the security situation in the Carpathians:
My feeling when I wrote this all the way up until the day I went there was that the remote and isolated Zakarpattia, often seen as an “escape” inside Ukraine from war,…….. was in turn becoming increasingly a target as Ukraine ramped up strikes on hot political areas in russia.
Amid all of this, my family was nervous for me going to Kyiv, knowing that Moscow had been hit bad in Ukraine’s deep strike campaign. Even Captain on Lyman Front questioned if I was scared to go to Kyiv.
Of course I was…but in spite of the risk, I support Ukraine’s escalations… in fact, I celebrate them…
To me, no better time to escalate against russia than right now……..
And lo and behold, russia made a big threat to Kyiv…and I was there for the big attacks which depressed me so deeply, I stayed inside for a whole day.
When I finally left my family’s apartment, I spoke to people in the community. One of these people was the Kyiv-based fashion designer who runs logic clothes whom I interviewed last year.
She told me she supports the escalations, and accepts the prospect that Kyiv will have some very dark and hard moments in the days leading up to the end of the war, but feels that if that is what it takes to end it, then she wants the escalations brought about.
It is one thing for an American to support escalations .. but I don’t live in Kyiv full time to be able to have that kind of right to decide…… as , while I believe I can have an opinion on anything, it’s not me who suffers from bombings every day or who gets sent to the Frontline. The Ukrainians bear the burden for their freedom.
So I want to know what the Ukrainians think.
If you’ve been following my blog, you’d know I recently spent time with students and staff at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. One student told me she rarely shelters during a russian air raid any more, and has accepted that she can die in a strike…. Her feeling was much of this is out of her hands, so it’s best for her to just live life to the fullest instead of live in Fear.
Many people have told me similar stories….
And since i was in such a unique and distinct region of it’s own in Ukraine, i wanted to see what the students perspective was at Uzhgorod National University.,,,
When I got on campus, I had my eyes peeled looking for a sign a symbol a clue,,,,but mostly, perspective …
I can definitely say I found a few………..
Firstly, a control center at the entrance of the building…. with several people in glass windows manning a station of screens displaying a variety of surveillance feed……
That’s how I knew i was definitely in the right place……….
Secondly, and ominous construction site…
With my curiosity through the roof, I stopped a professor who was walking by to ask him what they were building there…. He couldn’t really tell me what was going on… it was “construction” of some sort…. and suddenly he looked like he had to be somewhere.. Ironically, right at that moment he got a phone call… and told me he has to go…but was even more ironic was the guy at the security control center staring right at us through the glass window also seemed to get a phone call…at the very same time……….we all looked at eachother, and the professor bolted…….. maybe it was just coincidence ………but i decided from that point there that I’d probably get a lot farther if I stick to interviewing students………..
And on the way, I found this……..
I can’t be sure how old that stained glass is, knowing that the University is celebrating 80 years. But to me I definitely pick up on war-time imagery.
The University itself has a very old feel actually, like you’re walking into a time capsule…….. but definitely with new ideas.
And, it could be that it was summer time, or just a mountain thing – but there was no soap nor toilet paper in the bathrooms..,which probably means people just bring there own. Unfortunately I did not get the memo…………..
As I wandered through the university down the barely lit hallways, i found a group of about seven young women standing outside of a classroom door.
They were studying elementary education and hope to become teachers. Waiting for their test scores, one of the students explained to me that they will graduate toward the end of July, and many of the will go on to pursue their masters in education.
It is kind of interesting to me as a licensed teacher from Florida to see this rigorous devotion to the field of education, as, I did not study education as my major, but was still able to become a teacher with my bachelors degree in communications, plus an educators exam.
One of the education students was named Dasha. She told me, in spite of being in the far west of Ukraine, “Ukrainians here in Zakarpattia have always felt the war even at the beginning, many Ukrainians fled from Donbas to Uzhgorod at start of the Donbas war…….” She then questioned perhaps if even she was more biased because her father is in the armed forces.
Her father, she told me, was home in the valley city now since he’s been wounded – but he signed up for the war even before the full scale……. in 2018, doing mechanic work on tanks. He was not initially an army guy, but due to the “forgotten” war in Donbas, was compelled to join the fight.
Speaking to my fellow teachers, I recalled reports that russia is using state-propaganda in their educational materials to raise armies of children against Ukraine.
Knowing this, I asked Dasha if any part of the teachers curriculum at the University was geared toward educating Ukrainian children against russian narratives. The answer was an unequivocal “no”.
“Our educational program is not a political program even during war, there is no politics in the teaching curricula – we are not sent to influence one way or the other, you’re free to have your own political beliefs.. We as student teachers are not being told whether or not to teach with these ideas against russia, there is no hatred in the curricula against russia……. “
And I probed, “so if there is any anti-russia sentiment, is it a sort of natural thing amongst the community….?”
She said, “Ukrainains definintely feel it there in Uzhgorod, but said that people in far east probably have even more hatred toward russia.”
But all in all, she told me, “Uzhhorod has always been a target, recently yes we feel it more..but not because of any one person is from here. Russia wants all of us to know that no where is safe in Ukraine…and that even in Uzhgorod, you will suffer for being Ukrainian.”
I also spoke to Alexandra, who is from Luhansk and majoring in Elementary education, and also spent her entire four year college career under russian bombings.
I asked Alexandra about the existence of pro-russian factions in Luhansk, and she denied their existence, telling me the following:
“Growing up my community was pro Ukrainian.. I was always surrounded by Ukrainian culture… Ukrainian community, we were all Ukrainian so I don’t understand what you mean by pro russian people in Luhansk , I’ve never seen them.”
Alexandra relocated to Uzhgorod after war in Donbas.
Another student I spoke to was Misha, who obtained his bachelors in economics at a separate University, and is now pursuing his masters in mechanical engineering. Misha is from a small village in Zakarpattia, and he told me several weeks ago, his uncles home there was hit. “Thank God just a window got blasted out.”
Misha shared with me how he is helping restore damages of war for the people in his own circle of friends.
“I’m not an expert on politics, but Ukrainian people cannot support the funding of weapons on it’s own,” echoing the widespread calls for armament support from outside nations.
“Pretty much the whole country supports debts to be repaid by russia….” punctuating the point that Ukrainians are paying out of their own pockets to repair damages but still largely defenseless due to the lack of allied partnerships.
Then I ran into a couple students who were in their first year of studies, pursuing degrees in dentistry – Andriy and Yana.
“I’m tired of thinking about politics” Andriy told me. Arnen’t we all? But unfortunately, I was there to do political journalism.
Andriy told me he believes it is worth having strike escalation against moscow, even if it means more strikes there.
“We’ve had enough. The first 4 years it was russia escalating….now its their turn to feel it.” indicating that the young Zakarpattian student thinks its high time for ukraine to ramp up escalations against russia.
Andriy told me that Mukachevo was hit for the first time a few weeks ago. And his friend, Yana, stated she definitely believes there has been escalation in the Uzhgorod area in the past month or so.
Even during the first 13 hours I was there, we had 5 air raid alerts.
Yana told me, even though there are more strikes and it’s getting worse over there in the Carpathians, she still supports the army escalating against russia.
The students I spoke to of Uzhgorod National Univesity did not view the attacks against uzhgorod as a political motive against one individual leader or decision, but rather punishment on Ukraine as a whole….
I guess one could say the feeling is…. Any attack by russia against against any Ukrainian on any Ukrainian land is an attack against all….the Ukrainians are very united in this way.
I’ve been in Ukraine for six weeks now… and this report cites voices from Kyiv, in Lviv, in Transcarpathia…. Ukrainians support escalations and deep strikes against Moscow…. they eagerly anticipate Ukraine’s military to do exactly what it takes to end this war through decisive military victory……..
– Alexandra Zakhvatayev
Kyiv Free Press
Kyiv Free Press 
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