Punitive psychiatry, violence and insults. NGL.media told about the state of affairs in a boarding school in the Lviv region

In September last year, a video appeared online in which 12-year-old Vira, an educatee at the Velykolyubynskyi Educational and Rehabilitation Center (ERC) in the Lviv region, spoke about harassment by the director of the center Stepan Mashchak. After that, a monitoring group arrived there and discovered violations. It turned out that cases of sexual violence were not isolated, and it was not only about the director of the institution — high school students raped younger students. However, thatʼs not all — punitive psychiatry could be applied to children.

This was reported by the NGL.media publication, which spoke with a member of the monitoring group, collected testimonies from students of different years, and recounted the course of the case.

What is known about the former director of the boarding school Stepan Mashchak?

Stepan Mashchak (64), the director of the boarding school, has run the institution for 20 years, but little is known about him. He is inactive on social media and does not respond to messages.

In 2005, he hired his wife Oleksandra Mashchak as a nurse, and in 2013 he paid her bonuses, which led to a fine for conflict of interest.

In December 2024, Stepan Mashchak resigned and was replaced by Orest Solokha, a former physical education teacher. The new acting director refused to speak to reporters. A boarding school graduate recalls that Solokha was strict, but you could “play around with him”.

The directorʼs wife continues to work at the boarding school even after her husbandʼs dismissal.

The Mashchak family has three sons, one of whom allegedly took custody of the child from the boarding school, but the child continues to be in the institution. Presumably, this is to avoid mobilization.

Boarding school graduates said that Stepan Mashchak lived next to the institution and used the school cafeteria for personal needs.

Monitoring results

The monitoring group arrived in Velykyi Lubin on the morning of September 27. In addition to people from the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, the group included representatives of non-governmental organizations and psychologists.

This special school accepts the most vulnerable categories: complete orphans, children deprived of parental care, or those with special educational needs. Some of the students live at the institution, while others come to study every day.

“What we saw is either a verdict on the child protection system or an opportunity to change it,” one of the members of the monitoring group and head of the Children and Youth Office “DIyMO” under the Ministry of Social Policy Kyrylo Nevdokha told NGL.media.

According to him, there is no toilet paper available. Children have to go to the teacher and ask for it. The administration of the special school claims that teachers are forced to hide toilet paper because children eat it or simply spoil it.

Children at the facility have complained of abuse by management. One teenage girl said she was called “a prostitute”, “an animal”, “rubbish”, and “nobody needs one”. They also reported inadequate nutrition and physical punishment for misbehaviour, including being hit with a ruler and slippers.

According to NGL.media, the inmates complained that the director of the institution would lie down in their bed, touch their private parts, and force them to kiss. This is 64-year-old Stepan Mashchak, who has been the head of the institution for the past 20 years. According to inmate Vira, he would force her to kiss him and watch her take a shower.

The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets reported that after visiting the institution, the monitoring group recorded childrenʼs testimonies about sexual harassment by the director, public humiliation, and threats of physical violence and forced placement in a psychiatric hospital for violating the daily routine.

Seven children who testified about the abuse were quickly transferred from the special school to the Lviv center “Ridni”, where five of them found families. The children are safe and receiving psychological help. Other children are also being transferred to other institutions, and as of March 2025, about 20 children remained in the boarding school. At the time of the inspection on September 27, 2024, there were 57 children there.

After the monitoring visit, a video of Svitlana Podusivska, a teacher at the Velykolyubinsky boarding school, brutally beating a student with a ruler spread on social media. In November, she was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and banned from working with children for a year. In fact, this is not the only teacher who, according to the children, beat her students.

Punitive psychiatry and sexual assault investigation

Criminal proceedings were immediately opened in the case of sexual violence against children. According to lawyer Oleh Ivanov, who represents the rights of victims, cases of violence against children can last for years. Investigators have already questioned more than 60 people and are working with five victims aged 12 to 17.

The investigation revealed cases of sexual violence between children, including rape in a school toilet. In addition, the children complained that the principal took away their bank cards, which were used to receive social benefits, promising to buy them phones, but did not do so.

In the orphanage, children were not only scared of a mental hospital, but were also regularly sent there for “treatment”. A graduate of the boarding school Nastya Vanyo said that she was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Lviv for disobedience. Once, when she brought a kitten to the boarding school, the director threatened to send her to a mental hospital. Nastya got scared and ran away, but later returned, and she was sent to “rehabilitation”. There, she was given pills and injections that made her “feel like a vegetable”.

The director of the psychiatric hospital Bohdan Chechotka believes that Nastya’s story may be “manipulation”, but he did not explain why. He claims that all the children were treated only for medical reasons. However, according to independent observers, psychiatric treatment as punishment is a common practice in Ukrainian boarding schools.

Nastya also said that the director of the boarding school did not allow her to study in Lviv, even though she wanted to. Volunteer Ira, who helped Nastya, said that the director was disrespectful to the children and did not like it when volunteers came.

The situation in boarding schools across the country

According to official data, there are over 25 600 children in Ukrainian orphanages. However, less than five thousand of them are orphans or deprived of parental care. Most have living parents and need social support, not staying in orphanages. But orphanages are interested in keeping children there, because the funding of institutions depends on the number of pupils. Last year, the government spent about 11.4 billion hryvnias on the maintenance of more than 700 orphanages, which is more than 37 thousand hryvnias per child per month. However, most of these funds go to utilities and salaries, and only a small part reaches the children.

An important part of the reform of such institutions is that the government planned to close most boarding schools by 2026, so that 95% of children would be raised in families. However, these plans were postponed due to the war, and the new strategy for 2024–2028 also aims to close boarding schools, but only if sufficient funding and political will are available.

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