“I really wanted to come home and see it all. After being under occupation and then participating in combat operations, I didn’t believe it could happen,” Oleh recalls.
Kupiansk was under Russian occupation for almost six months. Even after the liberation, people cannot feel safe here. Russians began massive shelling, and about 60% of Kupiansk’s infrastructure has been destroyed.
“On March 19, I watched from the window of my flat as the occupiers hung their pants on the trees in our schoolyard and dug trenches in the rose bushes. We had grown those roses with our students,” the principal recounts.
“The mere fact that he could breathe on his own gave hope. When [the doctors – ed.] took away the ventilator, and he started breathing on his own, it felt as if he was already healthy,” recalled Roman’s father.