The Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Olena Kondratiuk, together with Latvian partners, took part in the oath-taking ceremony of the students of the Vice Admiral Volodymyr Bezkorovainyi Naval Lyceum in Odesa.
“This is a unique and only educational institution of its kind in Ukraine. It was evacuated from Sevastopol. The students of this lyceum did not submit to the occupiers during the annexation of Crimea and sang the Ukrainian anthem to demonstrate their loyalty to the Ukrainian people,” the Vice Speaker recalled the history of the famous institution.
In addition, Olena Kondratiuk, together with representatives of Latvian charitable foundations, donated two buses and humanitarian aid to the lyceum: sleeping bags, trench candles, dry rations, canned food, traditional Latvian bread, and sweets.
“The charity event in support of the lyceum is a joint initiative of ours together with the Latvian charity foundation “Ziedot. Lv”, the Confederation of Ukrainian Organisations of Latvia “Viche” and the woodworking concern Latvijas Finieris, which became the main donor of funds for the implementation of this project,” said the Vice-Speaker and sincerely thanked her Latvian friends and representatives of the Ukrainian community in Latvia who “put their souls, their own strength, time and resources into this cause!”
And this is not a one-off event! We are taking the lyceum under our patronage, and this is only the first stage of our strategy to promote and train the future elite of the Armed Forces, in particular the Navy,” said the Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
She also said that one of the donated buses with 30 seats will be used to transport lyceum students to training centres and camps within Ukraine, and the other will be used for mainline training trips abroad, in particular to Latvia.
“We plan to organise an internship for lyceum students at the Baltic Fleet. We will facilitate this at the level of parliamentary diplomacy! I believe that the Ukrainian flag will fly again over Sevastopol, and the lyceum will return to its home,” said Olena Kondratiuk, adding that she was “happy that we have managed to do an incredible thing!”