On January 29, 1918, near the Kruti railway station, located 130 kilometers northeast of Kyiv 300 military school cadets, students and gymnasium students took on the field an unequal battle with the almost 5,000 Bolsheviks army, decisively defending the right of the Ukrainian people to live in their own state. Young defenders of the Ukrainian People’s Republic have written a new heroic page in the history of the Ukrainian liberation movement with their own blood.

The fight lasted only five hours. 28 young men were captured and then shot. At the cost of their lives, young heroes stopped the enemy’s attack for two days.

Already in March 1918, after the signing of the Brest Peace Accord by the Bolsheviks and with the return of the UNR government to Kyiv , by the decision of the Central Rada it was decided to solemnly re-burry the fallen students at Askold’s grave in Kyiv . Bodies of 28 student soldiers have been transported to Kyiv Speaking at the funeral ceremony, the Chairman of the Central Rada (1917-1918) Mykhailo Hrushevsky called the act of the Kiev youth heroic.

Today, as 106 years ago, the defenders of our state in the cut-off of Russian foreigners around the world demonstrate courage and unwavering loyalty to Ukraine.

Heroes do not die !