Bomb threats as Ukraine children return to school
Published on: Saturday, September 02, 2023
By: AFP
Nearly four million students are returning to learning both virtually and in the classroom. Big cities and towns across Ukraine are regularly subjected to artillery, drone and missile attacks and thousands of schools have been damaged or destroyed.
KYIV: Kyiv police reported bomb threats to the Ukrainian capital’s schools on Friday as children returned to classrooms for a second academic year since Russia’s all-out invasion.
Kyiv’s police said its forces were checking educational facilities.
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“We have received information about explosives in Kyiv’s schools,” police spokeswoman Yulia Girdvilis told AFP.
“All educational institutions are being checked by Kyiv police forces with the involvement of the State Emergency Service.”
The police force also said any evacuations would be decided by schools and the police, calling on people to “stay calm.”
Nearly four million students are returning to learning, both virtually and in the classroom, Ukraine’s education ministry said.
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Big cities and towns across Ukraine are regularly subjected to artillery, drone and missile attacks and thousands of schools have been damaged or destroyed, according to authorities.
“The nation preserved the opportunity for children to go to Ukrainian school,” the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said on social media. “Ukrainian teachers are real heroes.”
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More than 3.6 million children attend school in Ukraine, including nearly 900,000 who study remotely, said Yermak.
“The main thing is that our children will study,” said General Valery Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces.
“And our educators, teachers and lecturers will teach. Because knowledge and culture are what distinguish us from the enemy.”
Andriy Sadovy, the mayor of the western city of Lviv, said pupils will be learning to fly drones, releasing a picture of students behind computers.
“This is our new reality,” he said on social media.
Kyiv launched its long-anticipated counteroffensive in June but has acknowledged tough battles as it struggles to break through heavily fortified Russian positions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will host his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi for talks on Monday, the Kremlin announced.
“Negotiations will indeed take place in Sochi on Monday,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.
Ukraine said Friday that two more ships were sailing through a temporary corridor set up by Kyiv to ensure safe navigation through the Black Sea.
“Two vessels are sailing through a temporary corridor from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports to the Bosphorus,” Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on social media.
Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan said on a visit to Moscow that reviving a deal to ship Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea was “critical” for food security.
Fidan was in Moscow to prepare an informal summit between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi, expected next week.
“We underlined its critical role for global food security and stability in the Black Sea,” Fidan said during a joint media appearance with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief said Friday that a recent drone attack on an airport in Russia that damaged several transport planes was carried out from within Russian territory.
The attack this week on Pskov airport—roughly 700 kilometres (more than 400 miles) from Ukraine—marked the latest strike to rock Russian territory since Kyiv vowed to “return” the conflict to Russia in July.
The Kremlin said this week that military experts were working to find out which routes drones are taking in order “to prevent such situations in the future”.
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