Sharjah24 - AFP: When Ukrainian student Anna Fursyk first moved into her Taiwanese university dormitory, the roar of passing military jets made her flinch, reminding her of the war she had fled.
She is among the eight young Ukrainians who recently arrived in central Taichung city to study on full scholarships, drawn by Taiwan's democracy and a sense of kinship born of living under the constant threat of invasion from a much bigger, increasingly aggressive neighbour.
The planes that spooked Fursyk were from a nearby air base, which is scrambling jets more frequently to counter the growing number of incursions by Chinese warplanes into Taiwan's air defence identification zone.
"I was scared at first because I thought there was a war starting. I was affected mentally by the war in Ukraine," the 20-year-old said.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine, he gave form to the darkest fears of many Taiwanese -- that China will act on its pledge to annex the island, which it sees as a part of its territory to be seized one day, by force if necessary.
A top Chinese official recently warned that Beijing would "not hesitate to start a war" if the island declares independence.
Roman Koval, 28, a former flight attendant from Ukraine's eastern Lugansk region, said he decided to relocate to Taiwan partly because of what he called the "similar threats" it shared with his home country.
He called on Taiwan to learn from Ukraine's experience and to "be always ready and be always prepared".
"All the time Ukrainians were thinking... the US will come to save us, Europe will come to save us. But it turned out that no one is going to come to save us," he said.
"We are the ones who are going to protect ourselves and we are the ones who are fighting."
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