Pitt professor in Ukraine scrambling to survive amid war with Russia

A University of Pittsburgh associate professor of economics is doing his best to stay alive in his native country as Russian President Vladimir Putin wages war on Ukraine.

Tymofiy Mylovanov is a Ukrainian citizen who splits time between Pittsburgh and Kyiv where he is president of the Kyiv School of Economics. After returning from Pittsburgh to Kyiv, he made the decision to keep the school open even as war loomed.

“We had to vote whether to move the entire school to distance learning and evacuate people just in case. But, we said, ‘we have to stay and teach,’” Mylovanov told the Tribune-Review from a secret location on Friday. “The university should be operational because if we stop operating then it means Putin won.”

Mylovanov arrived in Ukraine just days before the Russians attacked and now he must stay — along with the rest of the men — to take up arms and fight per orders from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Mylovanov has been advising his president on economic matters but will grab a gun if he has to, he said.

For now, Mylovanov is busy working and trying to keep both he and his wife safe. They are in what he describes as a safe house and taking cover in a basement when they hear planes overhead.

In Kyiv, he said, shelling can be heard in the distance with Russian tanks poised to attack from positions 15 miles away.

Mylovanov said he has no regrets about coming back to Ukraine even though he now finds himself in the middle of a war.

”It’s my job to be here as a citizen, as a husband, as a Ukrainian. I’m advising the government. I have to be there to lead it through the crisis,” said Mylovanov. “It actually matters that I’m here because it helps people.”

Mylovanov said in hindsight it was “stupid” to make plans to keep the school of economics open with war looming on the horizon.

“But who would have thought that (war) was going to be a reality and this madman is really going to invade and shell cities and things like that,” he said.

For now Mylovanov said he and his wife are safe and still have power and enough food to survive. He told the Trib he is confident.

“We will have a beer in Pittsburgh,” he told a reporter. “I promise.”