PREMIUM: Meet the 20-something tech geniuses taking on Vladimir Putin
In a community centre in central London, Nadiia, a young Ukrainian woman, takes the mic on a small stage to tell the assembled volunteers what’s at stake.
Her hometown in the east of the country is occupied by Russian soldiers, she tells an audience of more than a hundred at the European Defence Tech Hackathon. Nadiia talks about how she and her fellow Ukrainians need to fight the invaders.
Her mother, who escaped the occupied zone, told her about people being detained on the streets, being interrogated, and “fear becoming the reality. And about my teachers, people from our childhood injured or killed, and it felt like my entire past has been erased.”
Nadiia is watched by diplomats and local politicians as well as participants at the event, who wear stickers denoting whether they are attendees, mentors, or media, and also whether they are willing to be photographed.
A few visitors to the London event are there without their employers’ knowledge and speak only anonymously, or not at all. But most are friendly and keen to make new friends and contacts, and gain inspiration for ideas.
It is one of the hottest weeks on record in London, and the room is stifling. But the venue is full, and water breaks punctuate efforts to form teams and decide what to build during the three-day event.
After Nadiia speaks, others take to the stage.
One of the speakers, who wished to remain anonymous because of his work, delivered a lecture on how he managed to get a captured Russian drone to function, using a small amount of espionage.
