The meaning of this phrase can only be understood by placing a comma correctly.

The academic year 2023-24 was a period of recovery for the Ukrainian Humanitarian Institute. We restored our infrastructure, which was damaged or destroyed during the occupation, overhauled our dormitories, equipped a bomb shelter, and purchased new equipment to support the educational process.

But the material and technical recovery was not the only, and perhaps not the most difficult, challenge we had to overcome. The more difficult task was mental recovery, the realization by students of the need to study in a time of war. Some believed that volunteering was more important for the country than studying.

It’s hard to study, to dream, to set long-term goals, to strive for professional growth when everything can come to an end in a minute. Such experiences are not unique to today’s Ukrainian students. Young people in other countries and at other times, during other wars, had the same experiences.

The famous writer, philosopher, theologian, professor at Oxford and then Cambridge universities, Clive Staples Lewis raised a similar issue in his famous sermon to students in the university church.

“You, as students, are expected to become what in the Middle Ages were called bookish people: philosophers, scholars, scientists, critics, or historians. At first glance, these are rather strange occupations during a great war. What’s the point of starting something that you most likely won’t be able to finish? Or, if our studies are not interrupted by death or military service, why should we – indeed, how can we – continue to show interest in this peaceful pursuit when the lives of our friends and the freedom of European countries hang in the balance? Doesn’t it look like playing the lyre while Rome burns?”