UNIVERSITY of Newcastle students have joined an exclusive and historic live video call with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which he spoke passionately about the conflict with Russia being worse than a horror film, his citizens being inspirational and his faith that his country will win the war.
The ANU Centre for European Studies and the National Security College facilitated the conversation on Wednesday evening AEST between President Zelenskyy and more than 20 Australian universities including UON, where the more than 100 gathered students, alumni, staff and guests gave him a standing ovation.
ANU Chancellor and former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop moderated the call.
President Zelenskyy spoke for about 10 minutes about the realities of the war, saying every day brought "new Russian atrocities".
"It's been already 161 days and it's important not to forget [any] of those days," he said.
"The world constantly speaks about the Russian action only in the context of their later, let's just say topical, atrocity, but now the world needs to put it all together."
He said a country that wanted to "save its face" didn't launch rockets to kill innocent people at railway stations and malls, or strike hospitals, kindergartens, schools, universities, museums, theatres, temples, cemeteries and memorials to Holocaust victims.
"Anyone who wants to save its face doesn't commit the hundreds, the thousands of military crimes, crimes against humanity, doesn't commit mass executions of a peaceful population... doesn't put them on their knees and kill them with a shot in their back... wouldn't deprive people of food and potable water, of necessary medical supplies... doesn't kidnap children, separating families... doesn't hit the energy blocks with tanks, doesn't threaten [the world] with nuclear war, with energy crisis, doesn't block the ports and keep wheat, creating the threat of a massive famine on the planet."
Mr Zelenskyy said Russia had lost its "mind, its heart, its consciousness, its dignity, all that a human has" long ago and the rest of the world had to make a "choice" to "recognise [the] Russian arrangement as... terrorist sponsored".
He thanked Australia for its military support, sanctions against Russia, financial aid, medical supplies, volunteers in its hospitals and on its frontline and asked for its continued help.
An ANU student opened questions by asking how Ukrainians maintained their strong fighting spirit and optimistic attitude, even after losing their families and homes.
"I am inspired by people, I am inspired by our nation's strong resilience, honest mission, the people who fight for its life, for their families, for everything we have, for our Ukraine," Mr Zelenskyy said.
"This belongs to the Ukrainian nation and nobody else and that's why I am proud of it and I am proud that I am one of those citizens, of those people.
"The resilience of our nation depends not only on leaders of the country, everyone in our country is a leader... we haven't finished this war yet, but I'm sure thanks to the resilience of our country, of our military, of our doctors and everyone, I am sure we will win this war."
Another ANU student asked Mr Zelenskyy if he was hopeful a post-Putin Russia would be able to democratise and be integrated into Europe and global society.
"It depends only on one country in the world and this country is Russia," he said.
"Let us turn our attention on World War II, the bloody war, bloody tragedy, with bloody aftermath, with bloody stains, the stains of history.
"It was a facist Germany, but then [the] German nation found the power to recognise the tragedy as a great tragic mistake of their nation, of their people, of those who followed Hitler, of those who... supported his government, as somebody who just kept silent - everyone understood that everyone was guilty and they have chosen another path to recognise this tragedy, to recognise themselves as guilty and move on.
"Today we see one of the most powerful economies in the world and one of the most powerful democracies in the world.
"That was their choice, the choice was right, as I think. They gave the chance to the following generation... to live among the civilised people and to be on the same high level of life and I think that Russia will have this opportunity, for sure."
A University of New England student asked how Australian students could help alleviate the human cost to Ukraine.
"You can't stand aside because anyone who stands aside... helps Russia, because they're powerful, because they have more people, more equipment, they have nuclear weapons... you can't stand aside if you protect common principles with Ukraine," Mr Zelenskyy said.
"I'm sure in the world the majority of people, the majority of countries, protect the same shared values that we protect today on the battlefield with the cost of our lives.
"We thank you for your moral support but you also need to support us with deeds and... we need to have support with concrete actions because every hour, every day, we are losing... the lives of people."
He said Ukraine was also fighting an information war, with Russia spending billions of dollars on its "propaganda machine" and spreading in some countries it had not invaded Ukraine.
"That works, unfortunately, even after a lot of years of the war people can't open their heart to the truth... sometimes they are comfortable, they have their business interests and those business interests are more important than the lives of people, for them.
"So that's why, please, share this information with everyone, with other continents I mentioned and students and youth by using the social networks you have and opportunities to show the truth about Ukraine, that will help us indeed."
A Swinburne University student asked how the president viewed China's attitude and behaviour towards the war, by providing support to Russia despite claiming to be neutral.
Mr Zelenskyy said he knew he was not alone, but Russia was losing its allies.
"I would like China to join the unified world position [about] the tyranny of Russia against Ukraine," he said.
"As for now China is balancing and indeed has neutrality and I will be honest this neutrality is better than [if] China would join Russia. I believe that... the nation and people of China would do the prudent choice. It's important for us that China wouldn't help Russia."
A Macquarie University student said the resilience of Ukrainians had impressed the whole world and asked in what ways the country's society and culture would be different after the war.
Mr Zelenskyy said Ukraine wanted to protect its way of life from before the war, including the right to freedom and to choose who to love and where to live.
"After the war all this understanding of what's important for you become very acute, become very severe, from different priorities... people start to think about other things, the most important thing is my child, my family, how is our neighbour, let him leave, what is going on in the front, what is going on with our military, with our statehood, with our homeland, we are retreating or we are going further, are we wanting to give up our countries?"
He said he was proud Ukraine had a "multifaceted" and diverse country with different views, ethnicities and nationalities.
"It's united, it's very important to have unity in our country during this period of trials and I would like to believe we will stay this united... that we will have the same unity after the war."
A Queensland University of Technology student asked if Mr Zelenskyy thought Russia and Ukraine relations could reach good terms in the future and if so, what it would take for that to happen.
"Most probably, this is the most hard question because I will tell you frankly that nobody wants to have anything in common with people who did all these things to our people," he said.
"I tell you wholeheartedly, is it possible or not in the future? It will depend only on Russia.
"What do we need to do for this? I don't know if we can have this list. I don't know.
"Every family has lost something and everyone... will not forget who he has given, what he has given, whether it was a child, whether it was a father, excuse me for telling this, but hands and feet on the battlefield. Are they able to return it? I'm not sure.
"That's why they will have to think, for us and for the whole world, what to do to return at least some possibility of the future common existence with Ukraine and with the world. It's a question that belongs only to them."
Another ANU student asked what had been the hardest concept to grasp or thing to accept while fighting on the ground.
"I didn't think that people are capable of those things and I would share it in the two aspects," he said.
"On the one side people who are capable of such heroism, who went out on the street and started to stop the military equipment tanks with bare hands in areas which were occupied," he said. "We were asking, we tried to liberate people and somebody said 'I'm not going out of this, it's my land' and those people, there were a lot of them.
"The next part of humanity, another side, the people who came to our land who simply, I don't want to repeat... it's a shock for me, I never thought that people are capable of those [crimes]. We have seen different movies, thrillers, the horror movies we've always watched it, but I never thought the reality in Ukraine would be even more scary than the scariest movies."
A University of Sydney student asked Mr Zelenskyy how the war had affected Ukraine's economy and about its plan to rebuild the economy.
He said the war had displaced 12 million of its 40 million people. Some of them are still in Ukraine after losing their jobs and businesses and some are abroad.
"It's a disaster, it's a great strike for the economy, it's almost killing the economy," he said, adding the country was struggling with a $5 billion deficit every month.
"Blocking of ports by the Russian Federation, this is a great loss for the economy, not only the Ukrainian economy but the world economy," he said, adding that it needed to export its grain.
"It understands it will cause the food deficit through blocking of Ukrainian ports, it can cause famine of millions, it can cause chaos in a lot of countries.
"We understand it, those countries are calling us, we are constantly in communication with them, they ask us, they beg us, 'Let's pressure Russia'. Just recently thanks to the UN in partnership with Turkey we had the first ship with a delivery of grain but it's still nothing but we hope it's a tendency that will continue."
Another ANU student asked Professor Zelenskyy for his thoughts on Ukraine's participation and victory at Eurovision 2022 and if he believed music was an important tool for cultural connection during violence.
"First of all yes I do think that culture, sport and science have the great significance in times of war, even more important than in peacetime.
"For Ukraine, [our] motivation is to win for every Ukrainian and that is why we are motivated by any victory. We support our sportsmen and we support our cultural activists and Eurovision is one of the greatest examples where we support our cultural activists, we support our scientists when they are becoming the best, our mathematicians, our physical scientists, we support them as they were before, before this a lot of people haven't even heard about us."
Ukrainian ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko addressed the universities after the president left the call. He spoke of the relationship between Australia and Ukraine and the importance of the federal government's newly-announced Defence Strategic Review and countries being prepared for conflict.
UON Vice Chancellor Alex Zelinsky - no relation to President Zelenskyy - told the Callaghan audience that UON was "honoured to participate in this historic telecast".
"[The President] has certainly been involved in a very challenging time as a world leader," he told those assembled at Callaghan campus before the call.
"The Ukraine and Russian conflict has now dragged on for almost six months, it's hard to believe it's gone on for so long and I think everyone in Australia has been interested in what has been transpiring there, so the fact we've been able to be part of this dialogue is very important for Australian universities and we really do thank our colleagues at the Australian National University for allowing us to participate, along with other Australian universities.
"It's important for us to show our support for Ukraine and for seeking peace and a peaceful resolution there... it's important for the university to understand its position in the global context and it's an opportunity for us to think about how we can help resolve the situation in Ukraine and also how to help people suffering in these difficult situations.
"For me personally it's quite important... we share the same cultural roots and I certainly understand what's happening there through my own family.
"My own son has been reporting from Ukraine in the conflict... so we're very pleased he's out of the Ukraine now and out of harm's way, but certainly his reporting and telling me what has been transpiring touched me very deeply."
Professor Zelinsky said afterwards that President Zelenskyy's address had come "straight from the heart" and the students' questions were "tremendous" and "insightful".
"I'm very proud of our university here, people supporting Ukraine and what's happening there, we do want to see peace, that's what everyone wants to see."
Hunter School of the Performing Arts students Luke Macdonald, 15, and Nolan Sobel-Read, 16, who run the school's global events and politics club, said they felt lucky to be in the audience.
"It is incredible to get this opportunity to be almost as face to face as you can get with someone in Ukraine, to really understand and hear him speak almost directly to us," Luke said.
Nolan said his mother's family were Jews from Russia and Ukraine and he'd ordered some Ukrainian flags at the start of the war, which he brought along on Wednesday.
He said he'd been following the lead up to the conflict and ever since and he admired Mr Zelenskyy for his leadership.
The opportunity to hear him speak, he said, was "amazing and humbling".
Fourth year occupational therapy student Sarah Wood wore a shirt she purchased on Red Bubble to benefit Ukraine and brought along blue and yellow signs.
"I'm very much involved with following what's going on over there through watching the UN Security Councils and I've watched all of his addresses to leaders around the world and I just find him incredibly inspiring and his country to be so resilient and it gives me personal inspiration to, when I'm feeling overwhelmed or struggling, he's a really good role model," she said.
"As soon as the war is over I really want to go and help using my OT skills to help out however I can with the Ukrainian people.
"They have a desperate need to help people who have been injured, they're going to need rehabilitation and psychological help so that's something that I'd love to go over and if I can make a difference at all, that's something I'm very passionate about."
