With no end to its war with Russia in sight, Ukraine will build its first fully underground school in Kharkiv in order to shield the children from frequent bombs and missile attacks.
The Mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, said the shelter will help thousands of children continue with their “safe face-to-face” education “even during missile threats”. Kharkiv is the second-largest city in Ukraine and had a population of over 1.4 million before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Terekhov said that the school will “meet the most modern regulatory requirements for protective structures”. It remains unclear how big the school will be or when the authorities plan to open it.
While many schools in Ukraine have resorted to online classes, Kharkiv has organised around 60 separate classrooms throughout its metro stations before the school year that started September 1, creating space for over 1,000 children to study there.
The risks Kharkiv runs amid the war can be estimated from the fact that parts of the city lie less than 35 kilometres from the Russian border. The city has been faced nearly daily attacks from Russian rocket and missiles which are capable of hitting before the residents make it safely to shelters.
Earlier, a civilian man died and several houses were left damaged within 24 hours due to Russia’s shelling and rocket attacks, the governor of the Kharkiv region, of which the city of Kharkiv is its administrative centre, Oleh Sinehubov said.
War hitting education in Ukraine
Earlier, the education ministry of Ukraine had said that the war, which has left thousands dead in Ukraine and displaced millions, has destroyed 363 educational institutions and left nearly 3,800 damaged across the nation.