Deputy mayor of Kyiv to return to Ukraine with Kennedy School training
The Russian Army had encircled Kyiv, a highly prized target, by March of last year. Just an estimated 700,000 citizens remained of the Ukrainian capital’s prewar population of more than 3 million, and only a couple of safe routes out of the city remained. It was now Deputy Mayor Konstantin Usov’s responsibility to evacuate people from Kyiv and nearby cities like Bucha and Irpin. Special forces had already set up fighting positions in City Hall offices, using Usov’s coffee table as a resting place for a fully loaded Javelin anti-tank missile. “We slept two or three hours a day, probably,” he said about the municipal officials and workers, just about all of whom had chosen to stay and keep doing their jobs. “The majority of us were just totally committed, ready to face whatever destiny was coming,” he said. That’s when the acceptance letter arrived for a mid-career master’s program at Harvard...