In Ukraine, tensions are growing. More forces are massing around the Crimean peninsula of the country, threats of war keep getting louder and allies of both countries are figuring out how to react if war begins. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in New Hampshire, residents with direct ties to the country worry and wait. A Nashua engineer born in the eastern city of Kharkiv, an area with close ties to Russia, keeps in touch with his parents and other residents living in Ukraine. Another Nashua software engineer from the same area learns of a colleague killed in protest clashes and worries about the fate of his family and a Dartmouth professor from the western part of the country keeps in touch with friends there who say that they’re hoping for more support from Ukraine’s western allies.
GUESTS:
- Al Baymar – a software engineer living in Nashua. He is originally from a town near Kharkiv, Ukraine, where he still has family, and his wife is from western Ukraine, which identifies more closely with Europe.
- Colonel Lionel Ingram – a lecturer in political science and foreign policy at UNH, including in U.S.-Russia relations. He served for 30 years in the U.S. Army, including NATO tours in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
- Dmitry Goryayinov – also a software engineer living in Nashua. He immigrated from Kharkiv, Ukraine in 1999 and still has family there.
- Yuliya Komska – assistant professor of German at Dartmouth College who is originally from Lviv, Ukraine. Her first book, The Icon Curtain: The Cold War’s Quiet Border will be released in December 2014.
Credit Alyson Hurt / NPR/NPR
