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Laramie pediatrician who recently volunteered in Ukraine will speak about his experience

A poster advertising Kent Kleppinger's upcoming Ukraine lecture. The poster is blue, adorned with a yellow hand-drawn trident and a banner placing this lecture in the "Lessons from Ukraine" series.
Courtesy of Anastasiia Pereverten

Laramie pediatrician Kent Kleppinger recently traveled to Ukraine, volunteering his talents as a doctor as the war with Russia drags on. An event this week at the University of Wyoming will highlight his experiences in Ukraine.

Anastasiia Pereverten is a Ukrainian UW student living in Laramie. When Russia invaded her homeland nine months ago, Pereverten started organizing and advocating for the war effort.

"I've really directed my time, effort and knowledge of Ukraine to two main objectives — the first of them being supporting Ukraine, supporting the Ukrainian army, raising awareness about the war and organizing fundraisers for the army," she said. "The second objective of mine was representing Ukraine’s culture."

So she's worked with instructors and university staff to deepen and expand the knowledge available about Ukraine in the classroom and in the library. Pereverten said the goal is to foster knowledge and respect of her country — not just because it's come under attack by Russia, but for its own merits.

She helped launch a lecture series at UW called Lessons from Ukraine. The next lecture will feature Dr. Kleppinger, who will talk about his recent volunteer work in the war-torn country.

"He's going to be telling his fascinating story of traveling to Ukraine during the war, the adventures he's been through while coming to Ukraine, working in Ukraine, and his impressions of Kyiv," she said.

Pereverten said Kleppinger will also talk about the initiatives he's launched and share how audience members can get involved.

"My main hope is that people will see it's not actually that hard to be supportive of Ukraine," Pereverten said.

Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine nine months ago. Since then, the war has seen about 100,000 troops killed or injured on each side, plus another 40,000 civilian casualties.

The lecture starts at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 30 in Room 123 of the College of Business in Laramie.

Jeff is a part-time reporter for Wyoming Public Media, as well as the owner and editor of the Laramie Reporter, a free online news source providing in-depth and investigative coverage of local events and trends.
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