Top Contributors Of Python Coding Language Stuck In Ukraine

Ukrainian programmer Serhiy Storchaka is one of the top contributors to popular programming language, Python. Using Google Translate to communicate, Python Software Foundation's resident developer helped Storchaka's 11-year-old niece escape Ukraine to Warsaw. Ukraine is a well-established hub for developers, many of whom are military-aged men.

Photo Insert: A Python Software Foundation conference

Ukraine has one of the largest populations of computer programmers in the world. It's also an important hub for the programming language Python, which underpins sites such as YouTube, Google search, Facebook, and Amazon.

"People sometimes asked what made Eastern Europeans good at programming. The typical answer we give is, 'Strict teachers and long winters'. It's only partially a joke," said Lukasz Langa, the Python Software Foundation's developer in residence, based in Poznań, Poland, told Rosie Bradbury of Business Insider.

Python was created in the early 1990s and is now an open-source project maintained by a foundation and a community of developers.

Serhiy Storchaka, a Ukrainian developer, is the second-most prolific recent contributor to Python and tenth-most prolific of all time, according to Langa. Storchaka faced an impossible choice as Russia invaded his country. Like many young male programmers in Ukraine, he decided to stay.

Andrew Svetlov, another influential Python developer who specializes in asynchronous networking support, also remains in Ukraine. Storchaka lives outside of Konotop, a city in northeastern Ukraine, which is occupied by Russian forces.

He tweeted on February 26, "Russian tanks were on the road 2km from my house, and Russian armored vehicles were passing by my windows. Most likely, I will find myself in the occupied zone, where the law does not apply." Svetlov is in Kyiv, where Russian troops have surrounded the city.

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