Kristina But is a journalist, the CEO of the educational project MARA, a PhD student, a fact-checker, and an activist.

She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and is currently pursuing a PhD in Social Communications at Zaporizhzhia National University. Her dissertation research focuses on “Media Reality as a Component of Protest Movements.”

Born and raised in Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Kristina was forced to leave her hometown due to the full-scale Russian invasion. Over a period of twenty days, she participated in protests against the occupation of her city.

In April 2023, she launched the project “MARA: A Guide to Coping with Loss”. This is a modern platform for grief processing, providing informational, emotional, and psychological support, as well as conducting research on death from cultural, historical, and psychological perspectives. The project’s target audience is active youth.

As an emerging artist, Kristina is interested in visual forms of art, particularly performance, photography, and collage. Her works have been exhibited in Ukraine and Denmark, including events such as the online exhibition “Media vs. Reality: Who Will Win” and youth festivals like Molodvizh (Lviv, Ukraine), Opinion Festival (Severodonetsk, Ukraine), and Ungdommens Folkemøde (Copenhagen, Denmark). She also secured first place in the social photo contest “My Voice Matters” in Uzhhorod, Ukraine.

Kristina has received several professional journalism awards, including first place in the Regional Fact-Checking Competition and special recognition from the editorial team of Zmina.info in the Journalism Human Rights Materials Competition.

‘Freedom is the most precious value to me. I think I truly realized its significance when occupiers tried to take it away from us. That’s when I understood that freedom isn’t something you inherently possess; it’s something you have to fight for, something you must be willing to risk for. I greatly admire how Ukrainian Students for Freedom work with young people, conveying the values of libertarianism, teaching civic activism, and instilling a profound sense of freedom.’