Another corner had a bucket for a toilet that was the only choice unless you waited until the one hour allowed out in the school yard once a day. Houses were vandalized, randomly burned and cattle shot.
Russian soldiers had their base on the ground floor of the school so were very aware of the suffering in the basement beneath them.
Villagers wrote the names of those initially murdered and those who died during the occupation on the basement walls in the hopes that they would not be forgotten.
Now, in 2026 the village is rebuilding and the school site is being turned into a memorial with a sign in English with a QVC code.
If you can't travel to Ukraine but would like to help, go to balakun.org and info@enginprogram.org. Ukrainians want to learn English and seek Zoom connections. The sites listed will connect Americans who want to help.
