A special relationship developed between the students of the “Scientific Youth” Lyceum and the soldiers of the 95th separate airborne brigade. According to both sides, the acquaintance came by chance, a complete coincidence, but the result is about 100,000 hryvnias, collected jointly by children, parents, and teachers of the Lyceum – and a thermal imager, a night vision device, and support for wounded in the Kyiv military hospital. And additionally – a strong friendship between the schoolchildren and a fighter with a callsign “Shipboy” – Ivan Trembovetsky.
Delving deeper into the chronology of these events, one can find out that everything started when in August 2014 the students learned how their graduate Vitalii Deineha established the “Come Back Alive” foundation. The graduate was invited to the first bell celebration in order to give an educational speech on the subject of war and peace in Ukraine. Two weeks after the meeting with the volunteer, the students collected 60,000 hryvnias, though there were never a direct appeal for money, the children just felt the soldier’s problems deeply and wanted to do something. With the collected money they bought a thermal imager and handed it over to Deineha.
CAME FOR A COFFEE, GOT A THERMAL IMAGER
And now the history from the side of already demobilized soldier Ivan Trembovetsky. Someone may know him from the calendar, published by “Come Back Alive” foundation, in which he is Mr. March. He was seen in March 2015 at Boryspil highway, when near a metro station citizens of Kyiv saluted the soldiers returning home to Zhytomyr.
“In September I went on holiday, got a one week leave for home. I wanted to meet Vitalii, just drink some coffee and give him polite thanks for his help,” Ivan retells his story of acquaintance with the students. “He asked me about the other day, if I was available to go to his school and talk to the kids. And I said: well, I do not mind, it’s important. I thought there would be no more than ten people, but instead there was a full audience hall and a special program for me – I was shocked. And when the children presented the thermal imager, I stopped understanding what was happening at all. On the one hand, it is the right thing, but the children should not be doing this – our country must be ashamed that children give up their sweets and toys and gather money for thermal images or other gear. And thus we became friends.”
To thank the children for their support, the foundation wanted to prepare a surprise for the students. What would that be? A theatrical performance is not for everyone. A movie? Maybe. They agreed on the first Ukrainian musical film production, The Trumpet Player. It is a film about the teen love, a musical competition and related events in the children’s creativity center, namely in the brass orchestra. The actress Rymma Ziubina, who played the role of the center’s director in the film, even agreed to visit the students and answer the questions about the movie.
And then, Ivan Trembovetsky was also invited, in order to give children more pleasant cinematic experience and communication. The show was scheduled in the renewed “Lira” theater, but there was some kind of accident on that day, and the electricity for the entire area went off. In their wait, as repairers had promised to restore the power in about half an hour, the children talked with Ivan, wished him to preserve his cheerfulness and kindness, and thanked him for defending Ukraine. And Ivan reminded that soldiers on the frontline must be wished to come back alive and unharmed, because everyone is waiting for them here.
DONBAS CHILDREN HAVE NO CHILDHOOD
The “cyborg” became a friend for the children, a man they recognized though the excitement of the first communication had been long ago. “When the soldiers come, you know, the hall becomes filled with such a heavy atmosphere, as if everyone falls in a stupor and does not know what to ask. The soldiers tell their story, the girls cry, the guys hold their spirits tight and, of course, ask about things. They ask whether the fighters are scared or not, and the men answer that they are getting used to the war,” says Ivan Ivanets, student of the Lyceum. “Recently there was the anniversary of the “Come Back Alive” foundation, we greeted them, and on the celebration there were active and demobilized ATO soldiers, they thanked us for help. Now we are preparing for the holidays, but we help when it’s possible, making calendars, pictures, etc.”
The girls reminisced how they carried large bags of clothing to the school, knowing that the volunteers and soldiers will soon arrive. They will resume their charity work, it’s just the last weeks they became distracted to exams – it’s the end of the school year, after all. But Shipboy still remembers the children’s drawings and letters, even after his demobilization three months ago. He remembers tears in his eyes, when he read them on the war. “You realize that there are children on the other side. And they are still ours,” he speaks in quieter voice, so that children may not hear about how much sentimental he was about them, and makes clear that reason he fought for, “for the children of Luhansk and Donetsk regions have no childhood, they lost it. Even in Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, which are under our control, the children saw such things that even adults may not embrace. A piece of childhood was stolen from them.”
“DEFENDERS” OF THE ADULTS
By the way, Ivan is one of those fighters who are ready to remember the war, analyze it, make forecasts, abstracting from the horrors he experienced. While organizers were looking for another place to show the movie, he said that since April he had been mobilized to Donetsk region. He had been defending the new terminal of Donetsk airport from October to December, and the thermal imager helped him. Going for rotation, he left the imager to the 90th Battalion, who replaced them, for there was a big lack of gear in that regiment. He said that he had not yet received his ATO status, as it took a long time for the documents about their withdrawal from the ATO zone to come from the operation command – a month and a half. There is no procedure on the reward for the shot down enemy machinery. He calls the present approach nonsense, because the compensation for the downed tank will be given only if you have it captured on video, and then on photo if possible. He concludes that some officers and commanders do not want to work. And the state should be ashamed that the soldiers are protected by children, and not by bureaucrats.
Meanwhile, the meeting was rearranged to the “Dovzhenko. Books. Coffee. Cinema” bookstore. Thus the communication became even closer, as in the small room 37 students barely fitted, so the soldier sat just in the middle of them. Rymma Ziubina joked, smiled, and reminded that the meeting turned out to have happened on the eve of Children’s Day. But it would be odd to congratulate the students with this holiday, because now they have become the defenders of adults. The actress said that she had heard of students from Vitalii Deineha, who affectionately calls them “his” children, and had seen the photos of them greeting the soldiers at Boryspil highway. A joint review of the movie is only a small gratitude for the children’s work.
