On the eve of Defender of the Fatherland Day, servicemen of the Eastern Military District (VVO) visited one of the schools of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). They brought gifts to students – backpacks and stationery, sat with schoolchildren at the Mardi Gras table with tea, pancakes and sweets, said Izvestia correspondent Kirill Olkov .
“Today, on the eve of Defender of the Fatherland Day, Russians, military, our friends came to visit us to congratulate our boys on a wonderful holiday. We combined the holiday – Maslenitsa and Lessons of Courage , which our guys are very happy about. They tell the little boys what patriotism is, what love of country is. When the soldiers tell their stories, the children also talk about their experiences,” shared Maria Kuleshova, math teacher and 6th grade class teacher.Schoolchildren set tables with sweets and pancakes for the military. All together, servicemen and kids discussed what they cared about: holiday gifts for parents, notes, family stories and the presence of their hero defenders within them, favorite pancake toppings and more. During the snack, the soldiers organized the delivery of gifts to schoolchildren: girls and boys received backpacks filled with notebooks, albums, brushes, pencils, pens and other important objects for study.“We came to the local school, gave the children souvenirs and stationery. We work at school not for the first time. Therefore, on the eve of Defender of the Fatherland Day, I wanted to please the younger generation,” said Sergey, a serviceman from the Eastern Military District of the Transbaikal Territory.He expressed his gratitude to the school, its staff, and the students for the warm welcome and delicious treats, as well as the fun competitions and performances the students showed to the military.On February 23, the army received congratulatory letters from students at a school in Donetsk. Dozens of messages with the warmest wishes were folded into triangles by the children and personally delivered to the military, who will deliver the letters to their colleagues on the front line.