The Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding founded in 1920 is the only higher education institution in Ukraine that trains specialists for the shipbuilding, engineering, power, and maritime industries of Ukraine and other countries of the world, according to international standards and requirements. On July 15, 2022, Russians partially destroyed the main building of the university with a rocket attack, and in October 2022, the university was hit again.
The war caught the rector of the NUS, Yevhen Trushliakov, in Kyiv. On February 23, he had a meeting at the Ministry of Education. The full-scale invasion came as a shock to him. Mr. Trushliakov could not believe it for a long time, but he was able to pull himself together quickly.
“When you understand this is not a game anymore, and the fates of people and the whole country are at stake, then you pull yourself together very quickly. You set yourself up and make such decisions that in peacetime might not seem acceptable.”
On the night of February 24 to 25, Yevhen Trushliakov and his assistant were already on duty at the university.
He told us about his pain and plans for the future right among the destroyed walls of the main building of the NUS.
“You can bomb a building, you can even conquer territories, but it is impossible to occupy souls.”
The University of Shipbuilding is not the only university that suffered ruining in Mykolaiv and in the rest of Ukraine. Russia is systematically shelling our civilian infrastructure, residential buildings and memorial sites. Recently, we have interviewed the Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, Oleksandr Tkachenko, on the situation with the preservation of cultural heritage and the challenges the ministry faces due to the war.
