The sound of a school bell echoes not through hallways, but through tunnels. In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, childhood has moved underground.
Seventeen thousand children now descend flights of stairs each morning. Hand in hand. Step by step. Their classrooms are three floors down, shielded from the missiles above.
Anastasia Pochergina’s daughter walked into school for the first time. A first grader, in the deepest school in Northern Saltivka, a suburb scarred by strikes. “As a parent, I was desperate,” she said. “This is the safest place. We never expected it would be possible.”
The tradition of 1 September remains. Pupils arrive with flowers, gifts for teachers. Yet instead of sunlight and courtyards, they enter concrete chambers lit by artificial light. “We expected things to get better,” Pochergina said. “But not peace. We do not build illusions.”
Teachers hurry children through the doors. The youngest cling to older hands. In the classrooms, lessons begin as if nothing outside exists, art, numbers, games. Childhood is rehearsed, even in war.
Mayor Ihor Terekhov calls it survival through routine. Six metro stations have been remade as schools. Three more will open soon. “This one alone has 1,500 students,” he said. “The depth matters. That is what keeps them safe.”
For six-year-old Maria Yampolska, it was her first day of school. Asked how it compared to kindergarten, she answered with disarming honesty: “I never went. Because of the war.”
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Russian drones and missiles knocked out power in Kharkiv late Monday, while 23 people were wounded and an energy facility damaged in an overnight attack on Odesa, officials said.
The Trump administration has signalled to Ukraine that U.S. security guarantees depend on Kyiv agreeing to a peace deal likely requiring it to cede the Donbas region to Russia, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Former Ukrainian diplomat Andrii Telizhenko has told AnewZ that Ukraine’s diplomatic institutions have lost their strength and sovereignty since 2014, alleging that Western governments now exert direct influence over staffing decisions and foreign policy messaging.
Ongoing attacks on Ukrainian cities “undermine the credibility of the recent trilateral talks.” That’s political analyst Orkhan Nabiyev's assessment of the peace talks in Abu Dhabi on 23-24 January, attended by representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the United States.
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Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez said on Sunday the country should not fear pursuing energy ties with the United States, as Caracas seeks to expand oil and gas production and attract foreign investment.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has strongly rejected a U.S. magazine report on the death toll during January unrest. Nationwide protests erupted in response to soaring inflation and a national currency crisis.
A mosaic portrait of Pope Leo XIV was illuminated on Sunday at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, continuing a centuries-old Vatican tradition marking the election of a new pope.
Libya signed a series of multilateral agreements with international and regional partners, including Türkiye, aimed at boosting energy production, accelerating investment and deepening cooperation in the energy sector on Saturday.
India and the European Union have finalised a long-pending trade deal, both sides said on Tuesday, calling it the “mother of all deals” as they seek to hedge against uncertainty in U.S. trade ties.
The Trump administration has signalled to Ukraine that U.S. security guarantees depend on Kyiv agreeing to a peace deal likely requiring it to cede the Donbas region to Russia, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
France’s National Assembly has approved a bill banning access to social media for children under 15, a move backed by President Emmanuel Macron and the government as part of efforts to protect teenagers’ mental and physical health.
Russian drones and missiles knocked out power in Kharkiv late Monday, while 23 people were wounded and an energy facility damaged in an overnight attack on Odesa, officials said.
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