FARMINGTON – Even halfway across the world, the news haunted Natasha Chuprova.

Armed militants had stormed a school in southern Russia Wednesday, killing or seizing people who were there to celebrate the first day of school. About half of the hostages were children.

From her new place at the University of Maine at Farmington, Chuprova watched the story unfold over the Internet. It was the latest in a series of terrorist attacks in Russia, the latest blamed on Chechen rebels or sympathizers.

Although safe in small-town Maine, her heart was in Russia.

“How can that happen?” Chuprova asked. “It’s just school kids that have nothing to do with it.”

For decades, Russia has been battling Chechen rebels for control of the region. In her tiny village in northern Russia, Chuprova was hundreds of miles from the conflict. But she saw her homeland torn apart by fighting and fear.

“That’s our country,” Chuprova said. “It’s been getting worse.”

Last week, the day before she was scheduled to fly to America for her new job as a Russian professor, two Russian planes exploded, likely from a suicide bomber. Ninety people were killed.

On Tuesday, as she settled into life at the university, a suicide bomber blew herself up in Moscow. Ten people were killed and dozens were injured.

On Wednesday, there was the hostage situation at the school.

Chuprova said she is hopeful that terrorists won’t travel as far as her northern hometown, where her family still lives. But with attack after attack, she worries about her country.

The war started with Chechens fighting for independence. It seems now, she said, that it is all about revenge.

And revenge breeds more revenge, she said.

Said Chuprova, “It will never finish, maybe.”