“When we were putting down the coffin with my mother, something was shot down in the sky. And there were already a lot of people in the school”

The first day of the full-scale invasion was a difficult test for Viktoriia Tupalo, the principal of Kyiv Lyceum No. 234. The day before, on the evening of February 23, Viktoria’s mother died. In the morning, her daughter told her that a great war had broken out. Her mother’s funeral had to be postponed...

Viktoriia Volodymyrivna and her family went to the educational institution she heads. There were already a lot of people there. “...And somewhere on the second day, we started counting... We counted that there were 2,111 people in one day... People looked at me with hope,” recalls Viktoriia Tupalo. – “Then I said: “People, we must all unite now!”.

At first, we organised a tea party with what we had on hand. Then a member of the Kyiv City Council helped with the delivery of bread. The men who were nearby, including teachers, went to the Territorial Defence Forces. They started to restore order. Everyone who was hiding in the shelter joined the lyceum staff. They established the order of duty, distributed who was doing what. High school students helped teachers to be on duty at night.  The lyceum building was marked for enemy artillery...

To make matters worse, Viktoriia lost contact with her daughter’s family: she and her child went to their friends in Borodianskyi district, where they got under occupation. 

Viktoria’s mother was buried only on February 28. But as the coffin was being lowered, something was shot down in the sky. There was a buzzing sound. It was a column of tanks!  Only after 15 minutes it became clear that the tanks were Ukrainian. 

Viktoriia didn’t have much time to mourn her loved one. She had to resume the educational process. At first, online. But what kind of chemistry could you do when students found themselves in a war zone? First of all, she had to ask the child: “How are you?” and listen to them. The stories were terrible: “...they killed this one, they buried that one, and we were sitting in a barn.” ...In May, classes resumed at the lyceum. They even held a graduation ceremony! “Children are growing up extraordinary. This is a real great, beautiful nation,” says the lyceum director.