Hundreds of students from the Russia-occupied territories of the Donbas traveled to unoccupied Ukraine in order to take Ukrainian nationwide standard exams.
“Why don’t they just leave?” This is a question which people from free Ukraine ask about people from the occupied territories quite often. The answers can be totally different, ranging from no trust in the Ukrainian government to no place to go. Moving is especially complicated for elderly people. There are also those who can’t make this decision on their own – children simply follow the way which their parents or guardians chose. However, they are the citizens of Ukraine to whom the government should pay special attention when creating its strategy of de-occupation: to a great extent, the future of the region depends on these children and teenagers.
