Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 150 schools have been destroyed. For Ukrainian teachers, schools are deliberately targeted.
The village of Bohdanivka is about forty kilometers northeast of kyiv.
The Russians briefly occupied the region in 2022 and the army had at one time transformed the school into a military base.
Ukrainian forces managed to repel them, but before retreating east, the Russians burned the establishment.
Two years after the invasion began, the school has not reopened.
Ludmila Deiko, director of the Bohdanivka school: “I cried in my soul, but I did not show it to the children or to my employees, because I have a team behind me, I have 30 teachers. We had to be strong and show the children that we would do anything for them to learn. We must not despair, that would not help.”
The children of Bohdanivka now go to school in another village and with the help of charitable organizations, the cultural center has also set up temporary classrooms.
Anna Novosad, co-founder of the “saveED” school aid fund: “Russia deliberately and systematically attacks Ukraine’s educational infrastructure virtually since day one of full-scale invasion. So far, Russia has destroyed every 10th school in the country. And here we are only talking about general secondary education establishments.”
According to Anna Novosad, since February 2022, Russian bombings destroyed at least 150 Ukrainian schools.