University of Tokyo offers placements to 2 Ukrainian researchers

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Iryna Petrychenko at the University of Tokyo in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, on Thursday

Two Ukrainian researchers have been offered placements at the University of Tokyo on a special program established to support academics fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The two researchers are the first beneficiaries of the program, which was launched by the university on March 30.

One of the academics, Iryna Petrychenko, has previously studied in Japan. Before fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, she was a researcher at Kyiv National Linguistic University. She arrived in Japan on March 21.

At a press conference on Thursday, Petrychenko said in Japanese, “I am deeply grateful to the University of Tokyo for its support of Ukrainian researchers, whose lives have been ruined by a war they should never have had to experience.”

The two Ukrainian academics have been offered placements as visiting researchers until March next year.