The fifth school year of the war

Hours after Russian ballistic missiles rocked Kiev overnight, balloons floated above a schoolyard in the capital's Obolon district yesterday. Sleep-deprived parents and festively dressed children gathered to music, determined to mark the traditional start of the school year.

But just seconds later, an air raid siren sounded and the crowd dispersed. Children's laughter and music were replaced by distant explosions, the Associated Press reported.

Ukrainian students are starting their fifth school year since the start of the Russian invasion, and the end of the war is not in sight.

Thousands of schools have adapted to war conditions, switching to distance learning or a blended model, holding classes in shelters, while schools in devastated cities or those under Russian occupation have been closed.

An estimated one million textbooks have been destroyed in Russian attacks, and officials are preparing for what could be one of the harshest winters since the start of the war.

Years of war are taking a heavy toll on Ukrainians, as Russia steps up attacks. Ukraine has few effective means to intercept the growing number of fast-moving ballistic missiles, while waves of jet-powered Shahed drones are causing some attacks to last for days, the AP points out.

Since the beginning of the war, 318 educational institutions have been damaged in Kyiv, including 156 schools, according to data from the city's education department. Some schools have been hit between two and eight times.

The number of first-year students in Kiev schools has decreased by about 40 percent since the beginning of the war - from 28.500 on September 1, 2022, to 16.600 this year.

"Ukrainian education currently resembles a continuous obstacle course," said Anna Puchova, co-founder of the savED humanitarian foundation. "The system is adapting, but conditions often change faster than you can establish a model and say, 'This is how we do it from now on.'"

The consequences of the war on education are "very serious," Pucova said, pointing to the accumulated losses in knowledge, the decline in the number of students and the heavy burden on schools and teachers. The number of schoolchildren in Ukraine has decreased by 17,5 percent, or more than 755.000, compared to the 2021/22 school year.

"School is an environment where a child learns to communicate with others, build relationships, work in a group, resolve conflicts and be part of a community," Pucova said. "Ukrainian children have not had a normal schooling experience for years."

The impact of the war varies greatly from region to region, she said. In some areas, airstrikes are almost constant, while others have relied largely on online classes for years, as safe in-person classes are only possible underground. In some communities, the influx of displaced children has overwhelmed school capacity, while in others, student numbers have fallen so much that schools have had to merge or close.

In the regions where the savED Foundation operates, damaged or destroyed schools account for more than 92 percent of schools operating in the southern Kherson region under Ukrainian control, and about 39 percent in the Mykolaiv region. In the eastern Kharkiv region, the share is more than 67 percent, and in the northern Sumy region, almost 54 percent.

"In the long run, this is no longer just a school issue," Pucova said. "The level of knowledge of today's children will determine the quality of future professionals, the productivity of the economy, and the country's ability to create complex products and technologies."

Schools in Kyiv plan to start the new school year with a combination of in-person and distance learning, with rapid adjustments depending on the security situation, the city administration said.

Nadiya Andriyanova, whose nine-year-old daughter Aija started third grade on Tuesday, is among those who decided to move. She said the situation had deteriorated to the point where she could no longer bear it.

She said that in the spring of 2025, she noticed a significant deterioration in the security situation in Kiev, but still decided to stay.

"But the whole last school year was very difficult, especially at night. We usually go to sleep on the subway, because it's the safest shelter we have in the city. And nights spent on the subway have just become too frequent. After a night like that, it takes me a few days to recover and function normally again," she told CNN.

When Russian ballistic missile attacks became more frequent, she gave up on staying in Kiev.

"Every resident of Kiev knows that you simply don't have time to find shelter - you can't run anywhere in those few minutes. It all comes down to luck. That's why I decided to look for another city, another place to live."

Yesterday, for the sixth day in a row, Russian forces continued their intense attacks on Kiev and cities around the Ukrainian capital.

Multiple Russian attacks on food distribution centers and shopping malls have disrupted logistics in Ukraine, leaving shelves in some supermarkets empty and raising concerns among citizens about possible shortages.

Such fears prompted President Volodymyr Zelensky's adviser, Serhiy Beskrestnov, to take to social media on Monday to say that Ukraine will not run out of food. He urged citizens not to succumb to rumors, disinformation and panic, saying that producers and retailers were reorganizing supply chains.

Beskrestnov said that European countries, if necessary, would be ready to make up for any potential shortage in food supplies.