With immense sadness HCSS has learned of the passing of our dear friend and colleague Yar Batoh. Yar was a Research Fellow in our amazing HCSS Team Ukraine (HTU) from 2019 until March 2022. Since 2020 he led that team as an absolutely stellar manager.
Over the past few years, HCSS has had an extremely talented team of young analysts in Ukraine, working on ‘deciphering’ Russia for our multi-year research programme ‘RuBase’, which sets out to improve our understanding of Russia’s multi-domain international behaviour.
Yar did not primarily see himself as an academic or as a scholar, and yet he worked for us just because he thought the work HCSS Team Ukraine was doing was important to his country and he could offer a valuable contribution.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of his home country in February 2022, he felt the call of duty and joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Yar was tragically killed in combat in Donetsk Oblast in early July.
He was extremely intelligent, level-headed, decent, organized and mindful. But at the same time, he was also a deeply warm, kind, thoughtful, funny, and jovial person. We are grateful for the time we were allowed to call Yar our friend and colleague, and our heartfelt condolences go out to his family and loved ones.
He will not be forgotten.
Thank you for everything, Yar.
