Tymur Abdulin was born in Vinnytsya Region. He entered UCU in 2020 in the Master’s Program in Public Administration, School of Management. With the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion he joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine and is now on the frontlines.

“On the third day of the full-scale war, a classmate phoned me, also an UCU student. He was gathering a new battalion and said: ‘Tymur, there’s a proposition.’ And since then, two classmates from UCU and I, Artashes Makaryan and Oleksiy Dyatlov (who received a state award, a badge for service as commander of ground forces), and I have been fighting in one battalion,” says Abdulin.

Abdulin is convinced that victory can be achieved only by fighting, not by peaceful agreements: “I remember those guys who are perishing. I remember people who are suffering in occupied territories. I remember all the tortures they’re experiencing. This is also my motivation. My motivation is to drive out the Russians so that our people can live in peace. I don’t understand how there can be such torture on the territory of Europe in 2022.”

“The main task of Ukrainian Catholic University is not military action but forming and educating young people. Now we greatly need educated young people. This is a panacea. After the war, institutions will need to be rebuilt very radically. I am convinced that many of our graduates in the future will lead them,” says Abdulin.