Russian troops have left messages for pupils at Ukrainian schools smashed up by shelling declaring 'Ukraine and Russia are one people'.
Ukrainian forces that have regained parts of their country occupied by Russian soldiers during Vladimir Putin's invasion have found their homes left in ruins.
Houses have been looted, buildings smashed and bodies recovered in the wake of the Russian occupation.
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According to CNN, Ukrainian forces even discovered messages written on chalkboards in a school in Katyuzhanka, a village north of Kyiv which spent more than a month occupied by Putin's troops before they were forced out.
When Ukraine's troops retook the school they found equipment stolen or smashed, a cemetery dug in the school yard and trenches carved across the football pitch.
Signed by 'the Russians' and written in the Russian language rather than Ukrainian, the message read: "Children, we're sorry for such a mess, we tried to save the school, but there was shelling.
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"Live in peace, take care of yourselves and don't repeat the mistakes your elders made. Ukraine and Russia are one people!!! Peace be with you, brothers and sisters!"
Another message written on another chalkboard in the shelled school declared 'we are for the peace in the whole world,' a sentiment unlikely to find much agreement among the Ukrainians who are suffering through Russia's invasion of their country.
Russian soldiers left more messages for pupils, including one which said: "Be fair and honest with each other, give a helping hand to everyone who needs it.
"We hope we will be friends! Become doctors, engineers, teachers - those who bring peace!"
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Dozens of similar messages have been discovered scrawled across chalkboards in schools which spent time under occupation by Russian soldiers.
The cheerful, friendly messages and declarations of peace make for a stark contrast to the shelled and looted buildings they stand in.
School principal Mikola Mikitchik told CNN the place had become a site of 'barbarism and hypocrisy' where Russian soldiers looted the school and then wished the pupils well.
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He said he couldn't imagine pupils returning to the school any time soon and that absolutely everything of value had been looted from the building right down to the copper wire in the walls.
In Ukraine, the notes have become a symbol of the brutality of Russia's invasion, whereas in Russia they were used as a propaganda tool to claim Putin's invasion of Ukraine is actually a liberation.
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Joe Harker