Lysychansk is one of the oldest towns in eastern Ukraine. 

In the middle of the 19th Century, a Belgian company started a soda production line here and built up a town around it. Many buildings survived all the turbulence of the 20th Century and the 2014 battle when Lysychansk was temporarily occupied by Russia-backed forces of self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.

On the 24th of July 2014, the town was liberated by the Ukrainian Army. In 2017, Lysychansk was nominated for the Belgian Heritage Abroad Award, supported by the King Baudouin Foundation. International grants helped restore and maintain the architectural heritage and improve the lives of locals.

One of the buildings of Belgian heritage was home to Lysychansk Gymnasium – one of the best schools in the Luhansk region. On the 1 st of May, in the course of a targeted shelling, it was completely destroyed after a
few hours of fire. Lysychansk Gymnasium repeatedly ranked among the best educational institutions in Ukraine, its graduates always passed exams with high grades and entered the best higher educational institutions in the country.
 
Now, most families in Lysychansk had to flee and the town remains under severe shelling by the Russian Armed Forces.

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