faced with Russian strikes, this Kharkiv school welcomes students into its anti-atomic shelter

In Ukraine’s second largest city, schools no longer welcome students because of the war. In this school, classes are held in the fallout shelter in the basement.

In Ukraine, how can we continue to educate in cities targeted by Russian bombings? In Kharkiv, targeted daily by strikes, students have not returned to class for two years. All teaching is done remotely, online, with a few exceptions: there is an establishment in the city where children can still go to class, taking refuge in the school’s fallout shelter.

That morning, the director of this school, Svitlana Stankovich, greeted us apologetically: there was no power because of the latest strikes. But a moment later, his face lights up: “Here comes the light again“, she smiles.

To find the students, you have to go down to the basement and go through an airtight door. They are all there, divided into three classes in a row. On the program, Ukrainian lessons for older children, around ten 14-year-olds. “And on the big screen, on the wall, there are the students who are remotely, connecting, since the Internet has returned”specifies the director.

There were 700 students in this school before the war. There are only 250 of them left and they have been coming in turns for three months to this basement dating from the 1950s and completely renovated last winter. Caroline, 14, recognizes how lucky they are to have this solution, and thinks of the other children in Ukraine who can no longer go to class at all. “Coming back here is great, enthuses the schoolgirl. At least we can run around the school hallways a little. It’s always more fun than running alone, in your hallway, at home“, she laughs.

“I would like to live in peace”

But there’s no question of going out into the playground, it’s too risky. The break is only in the hall. The students barely have time to relax when the air alert goes off over Kharkiv. Return to the children’s shelter. In the little ones’ class, Adelina, 9 years old, sighs: “I would like to live in peace. That we can go to the cinema, to the park, and that there are no more sirens…”

Svitlana’s team even manages to maintain a canteen, with buckwheat, sausage and beetroot on the menu that lunchtime. The renovation of the shelter gives ideas to other educational establishments in Kharkiv, which will in turn embark on the work.