Russian soldiers smashed up a Ukrainian school. Then they purportedly left messages for pupils urging peace
Inside a person of the destroyed classrooms, published in chalk on a big, environmentally friendly blackboard hanging on the wall just below a portrait of Isaac Newton, was a letter addressed to the pupils and signed “the Russians.”
It read: “Kids, we are sorry for such a mess, we tried to help you save the university, but there was shelling. Reside in peace, get treatment of yourselves and do not repeat the mistakes your elders made. Ukraine and Russia are a person people!!! Peace be with you, brothers and sisters!”
The be aware, penned in Russian, as opposed to Ukrainian — the school’s language of instruction, was just one of quite a few remaining on blackboards and whiteboards scattered all-around the developing. “We are for the peace in the complete planet,” yet another 1 mentioned. CNN are not able to independently verify who wrote the notes.
Mikola Mikitchik, the principal of the Secondary College of Katyuzhanka, informed CNN past thirty day period he felt disgusted when he discovered the notes.
“They wrote ‘Russians and Ukrainians are brothers’ and at the similar time they robbed the school … they ruined computer systems, they took out challenging drives, they took absent laptops, printers, they still left very little at the college! It is really barbarism and hypocrisy,” he explained.
Mikitchik told CNN 3 anti-tank mines, numerous stun grenades and device gun magazines with bullets have been discovered on the faculty grounds. The kitchen area, a short while ago refurbished with new machines that was used to feed far more than 500 youngsters on a everyday basis in advance of the war began, was fully wrecked.
According to an operational update released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense on March 3, Russian troops ended up in control of Katyuzhanka at that time, owning established logistics camps there and in other villages in the place.
Mikitchik has approximated the materials hurt brought on by the Russian troops — and in his brain there’s no doubt it was them who looted the faculty — amounted to about 5 million Ukrainian hryvnia ($170,000) and claimed he are not able to picture pupils coming back again any time soon.
‘We hope we will be friends’
“Every thing was taken out. Even the cables were being stolen. We had electrical cables made of copper wire and 100 meters of the cable had been stolen,” he claimed.
At the very same time, one more take note still left in the school claimed: “Be truthful and trustworthy with each and every other, give a encouraging hand to absolutely everyone who requirements it. We hope we will be pals! Come to be medical practitioners, engineers, lecturers — people who convey peace!”
The notes scribbled on the blackboard in Katyuzhanka were being among dozens of messages observed in universities in beforehand occupied places of Ukraine right after the withdrawal of Russian troops.
In Ukraine, images of these notes became a symbol of the cruelty and the massive toll of Russia’s unprovoked aggression.
But in Russia, they created a incredibly various response when they 1st emerged in April and quickly turned section of the propaganda portraying Moscow’s assault from Ukraine
as a “liberation.”
The Russian news internet site Lenta.ru ran an report about “touching messages to Ukrainian little ones” remaining at the rear of by the Russian army, though the web page of the Russian Tv channel Tsargrad documented a “sincere” be aware that wished Ukrainian little ones “results in their studies.”
Former Russian lifestyle minister Vladimir Medinsky even shared a photo of one of the notes, saying he was “touched” by its concept.
‘We’re sorry, we did not want this war’
The Novobykivsky Typical Secondary Education University was strike difficult through the preventing. The roof was severely weakened by shelling and all of the home windows were broken, Vovk told CNN past thirty day period.
“The library is harmed. College textbooks are fully burned, not a one textbook remained. Desks are damaged, gear was taken absent, pcs were taken out,” she stated.
Still in quite a few school rooms, notes contacting for peace had been still left by the Russian troops, she reported.
“We’re sorry, we didn’t want this war. Slavic brothers, you’re currently being deceived. War is lousy, really don’t battle, small children!!” read through a person indicator, written in big letters throughout a eco-friendly blackboard.
“Let’s are living in friendship!!!” was jotted down on one more board, Vovk claimed. A image from a different classroom reveals a sign that claims, “We are all Slavic. It is not good for brothers to go [against each other] with a knife.”
Like Mikitchik, Vovk is now cataloging the harm accomplished to her college in the course of the profession.
“We had an interactive panel, that cost us 100,000 hryvnias ($3,700) and they stole it. Printers and laptops were stolen. What they couldn’t steal, they broke, produced it unusable,” she reported.
The Novyi Bykiv university making is formed in a letter U, enclosing the school property on a few sides.
“This was practical for them, they set a rocket launcher in the heart and introduced rockets from the middle of the school,” Vovk claimed, adding that the school’s format and its basements built it easier for the Russian troops to cover from incoming hazard.
“There are numerous passages in the school: You can enter from 1 aspect and exit from the other aspect and they were really comfortable with it. They even had a dining area there,” she additional.
Vovk reported she believed some of the messages left by the Russian troops showed their personalized desperation. Several were expressing anti-war sentiments, she explained, and at the very least five of the notes had been calling for friendship.
There was just one inscription that mentioned “We all want to Reside” with the word “are living” published in capital letters, she claimed. Another one particular reported, “We do not fully grasp what we are doing here.”
“I imagine these notes clearly show they understood the doom. Most likely they had been waiting around for death,” she mentioned. “But they also believed about the truth that they would be punished for the evil they did. It seemed like the [writer] desired to dwell, have a child and do almost everything as typical, but they understood that after all this they would no more time be equipped to return to typical lifetime,” she claimed.
‘Putin is your president’
In the Zdvyzhivka Grammar Faculty in the village of Zdvyzhivka, northwest of Kyiv, another sort of information was observed.
“Putin is your president. Youngsters, examine diligently, Russia needs educated citizens,” said a note found on a blackboard that was adorned with kid’s drawings depicting different planets of the photo voltaic technique.
An worker of the university, who wished to remain nameless because of basic safety fears, said tripwire mines ended up located on the school’s premises following the Russians withdrew from the area in late March.
Less than Russian handle, the Zdvyzhivka school grew to become the headquarters for OMON, the particular-police branch of the National Guard of Russia, he said. Like Katyuzhanka, Zdvyzhivka is also situated on one particular of the primary roadways primary to Kyiv from the north.
As in the two other faculties, nearly all of the Zdvyzhivka school’s products was possibly stolen or wrecked.
“They smashed the kid’s tables, destroyed the kindergarten, the home windows are damaged. They stole smartboards and laptops,” the personnel said.
“We had a substantial Lcd Tv. They could not steal it due to the fact it was far too huge. So they shot it and remaining it in the classroom,” the worker additional.
On a blackboard near the smashed-up Tv set monitor, an additional concept was observed written on a blackboard: “Forgive us!”
