On March 13, 2022, the Russian occupiers destroyed the Lyceum in the village of Zeleniy Gai in Mykolaiv Oblast. An aerial bomb was dropped on the building. The renovated premises turned into ruins, and the bodies of the dead were found under the rubble.
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"On February 24, 2022, the troops of the Russian Federation invaded our territories. We knew that the enemy was coming from the direction of Kherson. But they could not even imagine what horrors await us," Tetyana Yakovleva, director of the Zelenogai Lyceum, told the "Svoi Dim" project.
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The first destruction was already on the third day of the full-scale invasion.
"Already on the third day we heard explosions, the roar of tanks, planes, and helicopters. Then enemy troops entered the village. But they were forced to run away, because our Defenders held the defense and beat them well. People began to prepare cellars. It became more and more dangerous, the first destructions appeared," recalls Tetyana Yakovleva.
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Most people started to leave their homes precisely on March 13 - after the airstrike on the lyceum.
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"Many terrible events happened that day: dead, injured, destroyed homes... People didn't know where to seek shelter," Tetyana adds.
Then the headman of the village, Mykola Strutynskyi, died, his body was searched for several days. Oleksandr Hnedko, the director of the Zelenogai school, was seriously injured. Doctors fought for his life for three months, but he did not survive.
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"I live 7 minutes from the school. Our basement seemed to be lifted up, the door was torn off, the roof collapsed. In the house, glass was pouring from the windows, chandeliers were bursting, glass was flying out of the doors, fragments were flying into our yards...", the director of the lyceum recalls that terrible day.
In addition to the comprehensive school, a branch of the Poligoniv School of Arts worked in the building of the Zelenogai school. Music always sounded in its walls.
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"Our branch has been in the village of Zeleny Gai since 1990, we occupied several offices in the school. I was not in the village at that moment, because I live in Mykolaiv and went there only for work. It's a terrible tragedy, we still can't believe it," piano teacher Olena Zhuk, who worked here for 34 years, told the "Svoy Dim" project.
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Currently, the Zelenogai Lyceum pworks online. The scale of the destruction is catastrophic, but everyone hopes for its reconstruction.
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"The Shevchenkiv village council of the Mykolaiv district of the Mykolaiv region and the Department of Youth Education and Sports cooperate with charitable organizations and foundations, hoping for the reconstruction of our educational institution," says the director Tatyana Yakovleva.
Anyone can support the Zelenogai Lyceum.
Details for contributions:
Department of Education, Youth and Sports of the Shevchenkiv Village Council
EDRPOU code 41446295
r/count UA 708201720314221013301006025
MFO 820172
On the platform "Your home” you can share your own memories of a destroyed house or an institution where you worked. There is for this convenient questionnaire
See also:
Country house of the Tereshchenko family in Sumy Oblast. Lost monument