On April 7, 2026, the “Center for Unity and National Resistance” platform in Donetsk Oblast, in collaboration with the Department of Family, Youth, and Mass Events for National-Patriotic Education of the Oblast State Administration, held an educational online discussion titled “The Ruin,” which took place as part of a free preparatory course for the National Multidisciplinary Test (NMT) in history.
Guest speaker Oksana Maltseva, an experienced teacher from the Kryvyi Rih community, explained how the struggle for the hetman’s mace, rivalry among the leadership, and social conflicts between the Cossack elite and the rank-and-file led to internal disunity.
Participants examined key figures of the time: Ivan Vyhovsky and his attempt to create a Ukrainian-Polish-Lithuanian federation through the Treaty of Hadiach, the unstable rule of Yuriy Khmelnytsky, the active policy of Petro Doroshenko, who sought to unite Ukrainian lands and sought support from the Ottoman Empire, as well as other hetmans — Ivan Briukhovetskyi, Demian Mnohohrishnyi, and Ivan Samoilovych.
At the end of the event, the speaker provided practical recommendations for preparing for the National Multidisciplinary Test (NMT): which aspects of the Ruin period most frequently appear on the tests, how to work with historical sources, and how to avoid common mistakes when analyzing the causes and consequences of events.