The start of the academic year in Kyiv has been marked by a somber reality as students at the Ukrainian Global School arrived on Tuesday to find their classrooms relocated to the basement. Facing a wave of near-constant Russian aerial strikes, the institution determined that traditional classroom learning was no longer sustainable. Instead, the school has shifted operations to underground facilities to ensure that air raid alerts do not disrupt the learning process, framing the transition as taking education “to a whole new level.”
This shift comes as the capital endures its most prolonged and intense period of aerial bombardment since the conflict began. Between midnight Thursday and noon Tuesday, air raid sirens sounded 60 times in Kyiv, totaling approximately 47 hours of alerts. Local authorities report that at least 53 people have been killed and over 100 injured across the city and surrounding region during this period. The escalation is largely attributed to Moscow’s increased use of jet-powered, Iranian-designed drones, which are significantly faster and more difficult for air defenses to intercept than earlier models.
For many Ukrainian children, the war has become the only context they know for their education. Students entering the eighth grade are the youngest to have experienced a period of normal, uninterrupted schooling before the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Younger students have spent their entire academic lives under the shadow of the conflict. To manage these risks, city officials have instructed parents to treat safety drills as a standard part of school preparation, comparable to packing a bag or wearing a uniform.
President Volodymyr Zelensky visited a Kyiv school to mark the occasion, though the event was forced into a shelter due to an active air raid alert. Addressing the situation, the president condemned the targeting of civilian infrastructure, noting that even in wartime, children should be protected from such hostilities.
The human toll of the ongoing conflict is reflected in declining enrollment figures. According to the Ministry of Education, only 243,398 first-graders began school nationwide this year, a sharp decrease from the 400,000 who started in 2021. With UNICEF estimating that over 1.8 million children are living abroad and many others internally displaced, the number of empty desks continues to rise.
For families like that of Nadiia Andrianova, the decision to remain in Kyiv has become increasingly untenable. After witnessing a significant decline in security throughout the spring of 2025, Andrianova described the psychological strain of frequent nights spent in metro station shelters. The situation reached a breaking point following a night of intense explosions near her home, which left her unable to function for days afterward. Despite her nine-year-old daughter Aiia’s desire to stay with her friends and teachers in Kyiv, the family ultimately relocated to western Ukraine to seek a safer environment. The report also notes that “Now, during an air raid alert, there’s no need to run anywhere, interrupt classes, or wait for hours to resume learning. The report also notes that the children are already where it’s safe. The report also notes that but its campaign of aerial terror against Ukrainian civilians intensified at the beginning of last year, when Moscow became capable of mass-producing the Iranian-designed Shahed drones, russia has been bombing Ukrainian cities since the opening salvos of the full-scale war in February 2022. The report also notes that when it was easier to avoid Ukrainian air defenses, moscow used to launch these massive attacks mostly overnight. The report also notes that which means that children starting eighth grade on Tuesday are the youngest Ukrainians to have experienced normal, uninterrupted schooling, russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine just as the world began to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic. The report also notes that those headed to the fifth grade or younger have never been to school during peacetime.