"After the occupation, Ukrainian life in Sevastopol froze..." - Valentina Lopatyuk

The only Ukrainian-language boarding school No. 7 in Sevastopol was established in 1997 on the basis of a kindergarten. How familiar it is. After all, almost all Ukrainian schools on the Crimean peninsula began with the fact that they were given kindergartens that were not adapted to the educational process, or old schools in a neglected state. It is also painfully familiar that the emergence of such schools has always been an initiative of the Ukrainian community, not the local authorities.

The emergence of a Ukrainian school in Sevastopol became possible thanks to the Ukrainian community of the city, servicemen of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, public institutions, in particular the city society "Prosvita" named after Taras Shevchenko.

The local authorities did not give this only Ukrainian-language educational institution peace and actually did everything to destroy it. 

As Myroslav Mamchak, a well-known Ukrainian journalist, publicist and public figure, captain of the 1st rank, said in his article "Utrakvizatsiya Sevastopolskoy shkoly i osvyaz" (The De-Trakvizatsiya of Sevastopol School and Education), published in "Krymska Svitlytsa", "when V. Yanukovych came to power in Ukraine, a "tobacco" optimization of secondary schools began. The first to fall under the "optimization" in Sevastopol was boarding school No. 7 - right in the middle of the school year in October 2010, the first grade was closed.

In April 2011, by decision of the local authorities of Sevastopol, the only Ukrainian-language school in the city ceased to exist.

Nevertheless, Ukrainian educators of Sevastopol, despite the obstacles artificially created by the local authorities, which did not contribute to the introduction of Ukrainian-language education in any way, did incredible things to popularize and develop the Ukrainian language in the city.

Today, we are talking about the processes of the formation of Ukrainian-language education in Sevastopol with Valentona Lopatyuk, who since 1993, while working as a methodologist in the Ukrainian language at the Sevastopol Institute after her diploma, has made a lot of efforts and work to ensure that the Ukrainian language is introduced into the educational field and life of the city.