More than 40 people gathered in a ten Hoor lecture hall Wednesday afternoon to discuss the crisis in Ukraine with a panel flanked with UA professors. The audience was filled with students, faculty and members of the Tuscaloosa community in search of answers, clarification and discussion.

“I think that there are a lot of questions that people have and a lot of confusion about what’s going on,” Margaret Peacock, professor of Russian history, said of the need for dialogue. “We really want to open it up to questions.”

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Andrew Drozd, associate professor of Russian, organized the discussion after seeing a huge demand for it in his classes. He also recruited Margaret Peacock and Barbara Chotiner, political science professor, to cover multiple aspects of the Ukraine situation.

Drozd said many of his students wanted to talk about Ukraine and it was cutting into his class time, so he arranged this event to provide a time and place for such a discussion.

“I wanted Dr. Chotiner and Dr. Peacock to also weigh in,” Drozd said to open the event. “And for that matter, I am a language and literature guy, so it’s hard for me to keep up on everyday events. So this was kind of my way of bringing in other expertise, too.”

Drozd then introduced Peacock, who explained that Russia and Ukraine’s interactions date back to the ninth century in Kiev, where, in a way, the Russo-Ukrainian story began.

“The only reason I’m going back all the way to [the ninth century] is to make the point that the Russian population very much sees itself and its own history as beginning in Ukraine,” Peacock said.

Peacock continued explaining the history of the Russo-Ukrainian relationship, emphasizing Russia’s claim on the region that dates back to the seventeenth century, when Russians began fondly referring to their eastern neighbor as “Little Russia.” At first this was not perceived as a negative statement, but later would offend many western Ukrainians.

“Back then, it was not intended to be a pejorative term. It was intended to connote an inclusivity of the Ukrainians into the larger Russian narrative,” Peacock explained.

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Chotiner’s discussion was focused more on current developments. She spoke about the recent events that caused the current situation to evolve.

“The weekend before last, unmarked troops with generally unmarked vehicles, some of which had license plates from the vicinity of Moscow, started moving into Crimea,” Chotiner said.

She explained that the area into which the troops entered had not been a separate province until 1945.

Chotiner said Putin has defended these actions as neccesary to secure the civil and human rights of the predominately Russian-speaking, predominately ethnically-Russian population, many of whom are military veterans and their families, and to protect multiple Russian naval bases.

Drozd emphasized the importance of considering this angle while discussing and thinking about the situation in Ukraine. He also said there is a distinct culture of “Russophobia” in American and British media coverage that is causing resentment in Russia and increasing any already present Anti-American sentiments.

“I think we are in something of a dangerous situation. The Russians think the West is provocative, insulting,” Drozd said. “Most recently some Russians were saying that Obama insulted Russia and was threatening.”

Lonnie Free, a junior majoring in public relations, attended the discussion and said Peacock’s denial of a second Cold War affected his understanding of the Ukraine crisis.

“I think she cleared up that we’re not going to another Cold War, and that there really is not a threat of war because there is no ideological differences, really,” Free said. “We’re going to have to wait and see how it plays out, and maybe a referendum isn’t such a bad thing.”

The referendum will decide whether or not the Crimean region of Ukraine will become part of Russia. Voters can decide to become independent and apply to join the Russian Federation or to restore the 1992 constitution of the Republic of Crimea, therefore recognizing Crimea as part of Ukraine.

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