Russian soldiers left villagers an apology as they pulled out of a school they had taken over outside Kyiv, about 50 miles east of Ukraine.
After five weeks of occupation, exhausted residents returned to Novyi and Staryi Bykiv, two halves of one village separated by a small river, to find their homes and public buildings destroyed.
Nowhere was off-limits - including a local school that had become a base during the war.
Headteacher Natalia Vovk showed CNN reporter Clarissa Ward the destruction that was left behind - including the main entrance that was splattered with blood.
Forces treated injured soldiers in classrooms, with military rations left scattered on the floor. Walking the ravaged hallways, the headteacher told CNN of her shock.
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'We are for education. Education is the future,' she told the American news channel. 'Out students. It's a shame our occupiers didn't understand this. Why steal everything? This is a school.'
The soldiers had looted all the computers and electrical equipment before retreating from the northern Ukraine village - but there were some signs that someone felt ashamed.
The camera crew found a message scrawled in chalk on a blackboard, pictured, that read: 'Forgive us, we did not want this war.'
Inside the school – a recently renovated two-storey building – the Guardian reports that the destruction is almost total.
Ms Vowk surveyed the school with a journalist - stepping carefully through the debris as the building had not yet been checked for mines.
“I don’t know how we’ll teach. The school bus is destroyed, so we can’t take the children to neighbouring villages,” she told the paper.
It comes as a mum-of-one secured a visa for her best friend, from Ukraine, after spending 12 days on hunger strike.
Rend Platings, of Cambridge, will host friend Kristina Korniiuk, 34, of Kyiv, who has now been granted a visa under the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme.
Ms Platings said the visa application was made within minutes of the scheme opening last month.
She started a hunger strike on April 1 after hearing nothing except an acknowledgement, stating that the “delay in issuing visas is adding to an already appalling humanitarian crisis”.
The charity chief executive had planned to end her hunger strike on Tuesday after Ms Korniiuk’s visa was granted, and vowed to continue to campaign in other ways as more people await visas.
But she later said she will continue her hunger strike for “at least a few more days to highlight the plight of people who are still waiting”.
Ms Platings said it “feels amazing” that Ms Korniiuk can come to the UK.
