More information on Ukrainian deaf school hit by Russian strikes
Here is more information on the deaf school in the village of Kamyanske in the Zaporizhzhia region that was hit by a Russian strike. This was first reported by a deaf Ukrainian-American *Arkady Belozovsky on Monday and then confirmed by the World Federation of the Deaf and the Ukrainian Society of the Deaf.
The school is in southeastern Ukraine, which is one of the most heavily-attacked areas from Russian forces. If you look at this map, you can see above where the approximate location of the school is, and in the map in the bottom, you can see many red arrows indicating Russian attacks.
Arkady was able to get a video of the school and its damage from his contacts within Ukraine and posted it with an ASL translation of a Ukrainian interpreter who interpreted spoken remarks made by the school principal.
The school was hit by twice a rocket or similar projectile on March 4, which is on a Friday. The video showed huge holes in an office and in a dorm room.
The school principal explained that there were seven students who had to stay at the school because their parents couldn’t pick them up due to them being stuck in cities that were among the first to be invaded by Russian forces. There were staff who took care of the students at the school up to the moment that it was hit, and fortunately nobody was injured. One of the people filmed said they were absolutely terrified by the strikes and that it felt like an earthquake.
The video showed that there were two journalists from the U.K. who visited the school on Sunday and documented the damage. One of the journalists is Jerome Starkey, who works for British news outlet “The Sun.” He wrote that the students were hiding in a basement when it was hit and they could feel “everything shaking.” He said a local Ukrainian military commander explained that the Russian lines were only three miles away from the school and attacked Ukrainian positions with missiles, rockets and shells from tanks and self-propelled guns. Starkey said his team and another team from another British news outlet “The Telegraph” offered to give students a ride to another city. Starkey said the students met with staff from another deaf school, who said they would send the students further west.
The Telegraph journalist Roland Oliphant also wrote an article about the deaf school. He shared mostly the same information as the above but added that when they were there to visit, they could hear bangs from outgoing Ukrainian forces and incoming fire from Russians and decided to leave and then provided a ride for the students. He said Ukrainian soldiers were in the area and setting up defensive positions.
*Correction: Arkady's last name was misspelled in the above report. It is Arkady Belozovsky, not Belozosky. We regret the error.
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So, that’s what happened to the deaf school. I want to clear up one area of confusion in the deaf community last weekend — there were some reports that said it was “not true” that deaf schools were hit. This is in reference to some earlier reports that deaf schools or a deaf school in Kyiv was bombed. According to Arkady and the Ukrainian Society for the Deaf, it’s not true that other deaf schools were hit, but this school in the Zaporizhzhia area was hit. Also to be clear, according to Arkady and the Ukrainian Society for the Deaf, there are 57 deaf schools in total across the country and this one was hit.
The school that was hit is in the same area as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that had one of its facilities burn up due to Russian shelling last Thursday and Friday. The power plant has been taken over by Russian troops.
https://www.facebook.com/ArkadyDeafEmpowerment/videos/347925757252687
https://www.facebook.com/ArkadyDeafEmpowerment/posts/3125765864363311
https://www.facebook.com/Wfdeaf.org/posts/332691682235049
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/17875908/five-deaf-students-saved-ukraine/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/17875908/five-deaf-students-saved-ukraine/