Some people in Northeast Wisconsin are worried about their Ukrainian friends living overseas following Russia's attack on the country.
"First thing you think about is them," said Jordan Karsten, associate professor of anthropology at UW Oshkosh. "You wonder what their safety is, what they're going to do to keep themselves safe, what the implications are for them."
For more than a decade, Karsten has spent months in Ukraine conducting archaeological research. He's accompanied students for excavations in the country since 2014 and unearthed strong friendships along the way.
Jordan Karsten, an associate professor of anthropology at @uwoshkosh, has spent a lot of time in Ukraine doing archeological research. Jordan said he's worried about friends who live there following Russia's attack on the country, some of who left bigger cities for safety @NBC26 pic.twitter.com/VKt5MshPFh
— Kelsey Dickeson (@KelseyDickeson) February 24, 2022
"I have a couple of little kids, and some of my friends there have kids the exact same age," Karsten said. "They're sitting there in their house listening to bombs being dropped."
Since the Russian attack early Thursday, Karsten said some friends are evacuating big cities like Kyiv to seek shelter in the countryside. Karsten said others are unable to leave.
"It's frightening. You're basically staying in your home and you don't know what the future holds," Karsten said.
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Karsten was in Ukraine for the revolution of 2014 and participated in protests that ousted the pro-Russian president at the time, Viktro Yanukovych.
Tracy Slagter, professor of political science at UW Oshkosh, said the Russian Federation's annexation of Crimea in 2014 is just an example of heightened tensions between Ukraine and Russia.
“The West pretty much failed to respond," Slagter said. "Pretty much failed to curtail that attack, or to respond to it to discourage Putin from doing it again.”
Slagter said Russia's attack on Ukraine is a violation of international law.
"For Putin to be thumbing his nose at this and saying, 'well, I can do whatever I want,' is a direct contravention of the direct principles that we've been building up at least since the end of the Second World War, if not before."
Slagter said the West's response will play a key role in maintaining those principles moving forward.
"We are at a crucial moment, in my opinion, in determining how willing we are to defend western liberal democracy and a rules-based international order," Slagter said.
President Joe Biden announced a series of economic sanctions in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine Thursday, which include "blocking assets of large Russian banks, imposing export controls and sanctioning Russian oligarchs who have funds outside of the country."
Karsten said he hopes to see a swift end to the war in Ukraine with as little damage as possible.
"With hopefully western help, Ukraine can pick up the pieces and move on," Karsten said.
