The Cornell Ukrainian Club hosted a screening of the documentary film 2000 Meters to Andriivka on Monday to recognize four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Now entering its fifth year, the war remains an active, grinding conflict that has devastated life in Ukraine.
The film follows a Ukrainian platoon through their fight to liberate the strategic village of Andriviika in eastern Ukraine from Russian forces and was screened in collaboration with the International Student Association and Cornell Cinema. The screening was followed by a panel with James Patton Rogers, executive director of the Brooks School Tech Policy Institute, and Prof. Emeritus Matthew Evangelista, government.
The film was directed by Oscar-award-winning Ukrainian filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov, who won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for his 2024 film, 20 Days in Mariupol.
Through intimate on-the-ground and body camera footage, the documentary depicts Ukraine’s July 2023 counteroffensive, during which Ukrainian troops advanced meter by meter through the forest toward Andriivka, a now desolate village in eastern Donetsk that had a prewar population of 100. Since the events depicted in the film, the region was reoccupied by Russian forces in 2024.
CUC member Anastasiia Ryshytiuk ’28, was compelled to organize the film screening due to her concerns about fading public attention to the war in Ukraine and a lack of awareness among students. She said this concern grew out of what she described as a “chain of conversations and observations that were smouldering over the past year.”
Ryshytiuk, a Ukrainian international student, said there “is very little discussion or compassion and empathy [about the war] between students” on campus.
With the war entering its fifth year, Ryshytiuk expressed that she felt it was an important moment to share the film and encourage conversation.
Ryshytiuk said she hopes that attendees “left with a deeper understanding of the region and the context” and began “putting faces and names to news.” She added that she hopes the film helped students understand “what violence and fighting actually means” and reflect on “the privilege and value of life.”
Aisulu Tukenova MPH. ’27, who attended the event, said the film’s message emphasized the human cost of war.
“This movie shows there are no heroes. … They fight for this tiny village that actually doesn’t exist anymore, … but the [Ukrainian soldiers] wanted to fight because they saw and believed they [would] have some future,” Tukenova said. “It was very powerful.”
Tukenova said that during the first year of Russia’s invasion, she followed news about the war closely, but over time, her focus changed as other events dominated the news cycle.
“When I saw the movie now, I thought, [the] war is still there, people are still dying, and for me it was a reminder that the world is changing very fast, but some things are still staying … and we need [to] pay attention,” Tukenova said.
The film was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Ryshytiuk with Rogers and Evangelista.
Rogers is the executive director of the Brooks School Tech Policy Institute, which conducts technology and national security policy research at Cornell. He is an expert on drone warfare and a U.N. and NATO advisor. Evangelista is a distinguished scholar of Eastern European politics, with research focused on international humanitarian law, nationalism, war, gender and separatist movements.
Rogers and Evangelista reflected on the broader political and military context surrounding the film. Rogers discussed how technological changes — particularly the widespread use of drones — have transformed the front lines of the war.
What was once close trench combat is increasingly defined by drones operating across large stretches of “no man’s land,” Rogers said. This approach allowed Ukraine to push Russian forces back and regain control over parts of the Black Sea.
Evangelista also prompted the audience to consider whether the documentary functions as an anti-war film through its depiction of the war’s human toll for both sides, including a scene in which a captured Russian soldier admits he does not know what he is fighting for.
Emphasizing Russian tactics that target civilians and destroy cities — what he calls “warfare by war crimes” — Evangelista described Ukrainians as “fighting for their survival, and not only the survival of the country, but as individuals.”
As the discussion wrapped up, Rogers addressed Ryshytiuk and reflected on the event.
“Thank you for bringing us all together, for securing the rights to view this film … to contemplate this incredibly important issue, at a time when there are more wars around the world than at any point since 1945,” Rogers said.
For Ryshytiuk, sharing this film with the Cornell community was a way “to close the gap” between two realities: her life in Ithaca and her life in Ukraine.
“Sometimes you see people in Ithaca with children walking, playing, eating cookies and ice cream, and then you get a message [from] your niece saying she doesn’t want to die,” Ryshytiuk said. “That’s what this means to me, the contrast of realities.”
Sofia Loayza is in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She is a senior writer for the News department and can be reached at sloayza@cornellsun.com.
