Such limited understanding of the Eastern European nation — colored by years of headlines about war and destruction — is what Borodin hopes to enhance this semester through her entry-level course on its language. Likewise, one faculty member said her addition can serve as the “foundation” for MSU’s Center for European and Eurasian Studies to expand its currently-limited scholarship on Ukraine, while also setting MSU apart from its peers.

“It would be one of the few American universities to offer Ukrainian at a time when there is a considerable need for American students to know more about Ukraine,” said Matthew Pauly, associate professor of history, who is Borodin's faculty host. He added that knowledge of the language can "offer a much more comprehensive understanding of Russia's war against Ukraine." 

MSU’s offering comes as the Russian government reportedly suppresses Ukrainian in parts of the territory it occupies, but follows a spurt in global interest in the language brought on by Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Unique as the opportunity may be, few are enrolled in the class. On a recent Friday afternoon, Borodin jumped straight into instruction at 3:00 p.m. sharp in front of a third-floor classroom in Wells Hall with three students. 

It’s a far cry from Borodin’s experience teaching in Poland, where she fled after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Borodin said, being “neighbors,” plenty of Polish students took her class, hoping to parlay their skills into careers as interpreters, businesspeople and politicians.

U.S. students, too, would do well to learn Ukrainian, she added. Borodin anticipates the country will remain a central player in global politics, meaning that, in turn, there will be ample opportunities for American students to use the language in prospective careers. Though the class only became available after many undergraduates had already enrolled in fall classes, Pauly said, he wishes more would seize the opportunity in the spring semester.

Over the weekend, Russia unleashed its largest drone strike on Ukraine to date since the start of its full-scale invasion in 2022, killing several around the country and damaging a government building in the capital city, Kyiv, the New York Times reported. 

Though the crowd in Borodin's recent Friday afternoon class was small, it was engaged. 

At the class's outset, Borodin displayed a slideshow with pictures of Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie with Ukrainian sentences underneath them, including blanks. The students pondered the missing words and took turns dictating to Borodin, who nodded, gave clues when a term evaded them and congratulated them upon completion.

Later, she handed out a worksheet with the lyrics to a song by the popular Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy. She proceeded to play the track from her cellphone as the students hunched over their papers, listening intently to fill in blanks in the lyrics. After the labor, Borodin shut off the lights and the class watched the song’s accompanying music video.

Graduate Student Megan Cheperuk — who is working on a dissertation on notions of statehood among 20th century Ukrainian thinkers — said she appreciated the exercise. 

“Listening is the hardest thing for me,” she said after class. “So it's actually really helpful to hear the song and actually have to fill in the blanks, because then I can recognize the words better.”

Borodin arrives at MSU during a time of heightened sensitivity around academic freedom at American universities. President Donald Trump has taken an unprecedentedly direct interest in the curricula of universities and has pressured some to change theirs to come into closer ideological alignment with his administration.

But such concerns don’t seem to be in the minds of Borodin or her students. While it’s thorny to translate discussions of some hot-button issues to the classroom in today’s political climate, that's not much of a consideration in Borodin's class.

For Cheperuk, “With Ukraine, it's more the fact that people have kind of just become turned off to it, and they don't really care anymore.” 

“It's more trying to get people's attention,” she said.