in Ukraine, the children of Donbass try to lead a normal life despite the war

It is in the school of the district that the parents of pupils and their children gave us an appointment. The school has been closed and empty for a year. Classes are done online, at home, without classmates. “It’s difficult, children want to go to school and communicate with each othersays Olga, mother of two. Of course we feel that they are bored. They need to be kept busy all day after the online lessons. With board games or walks, when there is no alert.”

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A life disrupted by missile fire

But these alerts are frequent, and sometimes accompanied by keystrokes. “One day, we were in the street to collect humanitarian aid, the little one was on the swingsays Yana, mother of Olexandra. The missile hit. I managed to cover my little one with my body. There were injured people next to us.”

The little girl, from the height of her 10 years, straight as an i, comments in a naively supported language: “I survived two strikes, and those memories don’t sit well with me. I don’t want it to happen a third time.”

“Two strikes is enough for me.”

Alexandra, 10 years old

at franceinfo

Faced with this situation, half of the parents of this school left the city with their children. “In my building I had lots of friends, but all of them have left, I only have one left”sighs Valeria, who has stayed with her mother.

There aren’t many extra-curricular activities left either, for Olexandra: “I want to become an artist, that’s why I’m taking classes at the Beaux-Arts. But next to the building there were strikes. Almost everything is broken, the building is broken.”

Extra-curricular activities are done on the internet

The young Ukrainian is now taking art classes online. Valeria, she follows her gymnastics lessons on her mobile phone. “My teacher sees me on the screen and I do my exercises”, she explains. Later, she would even like to become a gymnastics teacher. But at first, she especially dreams that the war will stop.