Ukraine war: Revealed – the hundreds of schools and nurseries bombed in the first year of the conflict
At least one in every seven schools in eastern Ukraine was damaged or destroyed during the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Sky News can reveal.
In a new report, shared exclusively with Sky News, the Centre for Information Resilience has verified 381 separate incidents in which Ukrainian schools, universities, orphanages and nurseries were damaged or destroyed between 24 February 2022 and 24 February 2023.
During that time the analysis shows at least a dozen educational institutions were struck every single month.
An estimated 3.6 million Ukrainian children are likely to miss out on education as a result of the war, according to World Vision International.
The Ukrainian government said in October that 2,677 educational institutions had been damaged by the fighting, including 331 that were entirely destroyed.
In only a small portion of those incidents has the aftermath been recorded in images and videos shared on social media, allowing investigators at the Centre for Information Resilience to independently verify that the strikes took place.
One such incident was the bombing of Happy Time kindergarten in Kyiv. On 26 June last year, a cruise missile landed in the kindergarten’s playground, with a second missile striking a nearby block of flats.
Researchers at the Centre for Information Resilience were able to confirm the strike based on the images posted to social media.
On 26 June 2022, a cruise missile landed in Happy Time kindergarten’s playground, with a second missile striking a nearby block of flats.
They used satellite imagery to match the buildings seen in the background to the location of the kindergarten, and to identify the missile’s likely target – a nearby industrial complex, owned by a manufacturer of air-to-air and anti-tank missiles.
“Our team collects data from online sources,” explains Belén Carrasco Rodríguez, a senior investigator at the Centre for Information Resilience.
“Most of it is satellite imagery and user generated content. We store it on an internal dataset, we categorise it. We archive it, so that in case it gets deleted we still have the file in our internal dataset. And then our analysts use independently replicable techniques such as geolocation and chronolocation in order to see when, where and how the incidents happened.
“This way we build a dataset that we can share with domestic and international justice and accountability mechanisms in order to support their investigations into war crimes and human rights abuses.”
One in seven schools in eastern Ukraine has been struck
The largest share of verified strikes took place in the eastern region of Donetsk, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the war.
There have been at least 207 strikes damaging educational institutions in eastern Ukraine (Donetsk and Luhansk), leaving one in every seven schools damaged or destroyed.
Much of the destruction in eastern Ukraine has been centred on the area surrounding Bakhmut, a city that has been under siege by Russian forces since August.
Ukrainian government data from 2018 shows the town of Soledar, just north of Bakhmut, had 12 schools before the war. Investigators at the Centre for Information Resilience were able to verify strikes hitting 10 of those schools, as well as two of the town’s nine nurseries and kindergartens.
The images below show the scale of indiscriminate destruction wrought by months of fighting in one of Soledar’s residential neighbourhoods, with a kindergarten highlighted in yellow.
Other towns along the front line have also experienced indiscriminate attacks in recent months, as Russia has sought to break through Ukraine’s defence line in Donetsk.
One of those towns is Vuhledar, which has been subject to intense shelling since late January 2023. The image below, captured by a drone and verified by the Centre for Information Resilience, shows how educational facilities have been caught up in the fighting.
Damage to educational buildings in Vuhledar, 27 January 2023. Source: Armed Forces of Ukraine
Mariupol, on Ukraine’s southern coast, experienced some of the most intense conflict early on in the war, before being captured by Russia. At least 40 strikes hit the city’s educational institutions in March and April 2022.
Many strikes have strayed far from the front lines
In the case of Mariupol, Carrasco Rodríguez says the damage to schools is likely to be a product of indiscriminate shelling. In other cases, however, researchers believe the bombings have been more targeted.
“We have areas where our analysts have verified systematic, targeted shelling of schools,” she says.
“In Kharkiv, for example, our analysts saw an increase in damage to schools in July 2022, once the frontline had shifted away from Kharkiv city – schools were still being hit. And analysis on the area surrounding the damaged schools suggested that it was more systematic targeting rather than a by-product of indiscriminate shelling.”
Not a single month has gone by since the start of the war without one of Kharkiv’s schools, nurseries or universities being shelled or bombed. In several cases, the researchers found that no other buildings had been hit within three kilometres.
Three schools in the region have been hit twice, while Kharkiv University has been hit on three separate occasions. Since Russia’s withdrawal from the region as a whole in September, at least 16 further bombings have taken place.
Sky News compared the incidents recorded by the Centre for Information Resilience against the war’s shifting front lines, as documented by the Institute for the Study of War.
The chart below shows each incident, its date and its distance from the frontline. Those in the shaded area took place in Russian-held territory, while those above took place in areas controlled by Ukraine.
It shows just how far some strikes have strayed deep into Ukrainian-held territory – well behind the front lines.
It’s not simple to attribute responsibility for all these incidents, especially those occurring in the thick of fighting near front lines. But of those occurring more than 10 kilometres from the front lines, five out of every six (84%) took place in Ukrainian-held territories – suggesting Russia as a more likely culprit.
Educational institutions in Russian-held territories have suffered just one strike more than 50 kilometres from the front, while those in Ukrainian-held territories have been shelled 26 times.
That’s not because there are more schools on the Ukrainian-controlled side.
Analysis of the shifting front lines in eastern Ukraine shows that there were, on average, 890 schools in Russian-held territory on any given day (excluding those within 10 kilometres of the front line). That’s more than three times as many as there were on the Ukrainian side (249).
Yet nearly five times as many strikes hit schools in Ukrainian-held areas, compared to those on the Russian side of the front line.
Overall, schools more than 10 kilometres from the front line in Ukrainian-controlled areas were 17 times more likely to be struck than their counterparts in Russian-controlled areas. For kindergartens, the difference was 33-fold.
Bombings of Ukraine’s educational institutions have increased significantly in recent months, following a decline during the summer.
At least 50 institutions were hit in January, the highest since the war began, while February saw at least 30 incidents, with 16 schools and four nurseries and kindergartens damaged or destroyed.
The rise in strikes damaging educational facilities is part of a broader increase in damage to civilian infrastructure. The Centre for Information Resilience recorded 136 strikes that hit civilian buildings in January, the highest number for a single month since their records began in May 2022.
As well as 50 bombings affecting educational institutions, there were also 33 verified strikes that damaged healthcare facilities and 14 that hit cultural buildings such as churches and libraries.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
World
Pope Francis funeral: 200,000 people bidding farewell to pontiff who had ‘open heart towards everyone’
Tens of thousands of people have packed St Peter’s Square as the funeral of Pope Francis begins.
Royals, world leaders and cardinals joined scores of worshippers at the Vatican, as mourning of the 266th pontiff transcended wealth and social class.
In keeping with Francis’s life as a breaker of tradition, many of the more elaborate and expensive rituals customary for the burial of popes have been foregone in favour of simpler options.
Around 200,000 people are attending the funeral, with around 50,000 packing out St Peter’s Square.
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Pope’s coffin carried out as funeral begins
Follow live: Pope Francis funeral service latest updates
His body had been lying in state since his death aged 88 on Easter Monday, spending the last few days in St Peter’s Basilica to allow mourners to pay their respects.
The Vatican – where the funeral service is taking place – and Rome – where Francis will be laid to rest – are under heavy security, with a no-fly zone in place overhead.
The coffin of Pope Francis is borne aloft by pallbearers. Pic: Reuters
Members of the clergy gathered to say farewell to their pontiff. Pic: Reuters
President Donald Trump and Joe Biden, along with Sir Keir Starmer, President Emmanuel Macron and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, headline a huge selection of global leaders and dignitaries.
Read more:
Pope Francis’s funeral – what is happening and when
Full order of service for Pope’s funeral
Francis’s coffin has been taken out into St Peter’s Square where 220 cardinals and 750 bishops and priests are sitting in rows, waiting to say goodbye to the Bishop of Rome.
A series of readings and prayers are being read before the 50,000 faithful gathered before the basilica, and the coffin will be sprinkled with holy water and incense.
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Singing rings out at the Vatican
Members of the clergy stand in St Peter’s Square. Pic: Reuters
It began with Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re reading the Penitential Act – a way for the faithful to confess their sinfulness.
This was followed by the Liturgy of the Word, a part in Catholic mass where faithful gather to hear and reflect on the word of God.
Cardinal Re then delivered the homily, speaking about Pope Francis’ life and service to God.
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Applause breaks out as Zelenskyy arrives
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re read the homily
The cardinal praised the pontiff as someone who “touched the minds and hearts of people” who was “attentive to the signs of the times”.
He added: “Despite his frailty and suffering towards the end, Pope Francis chose to follow this path of self-giving until the last day of his earthly life.”
He said Francis “was a pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone”.
Tens of thousands pack St Peter’s Square for the funeral. Pic: AP
Clergy seated during the funeral. Pic: AP
At the end of the mass, the choir will sing in Latin: “May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs come and welcome you and take you into the holy city, the new and eternal Jerusalem.”
After the service, Pope Francis’s body will be taken in procession through the streets of Rome to his final resting place at his favourite church, the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Worshippers outside the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Pic: Reuters
He will be ushered into the basilica – dedicated to the Virgin Mary – by prisoners and migrants, a last reflection of his priorities as pope.
In a break with tradition, the Pope outlined in his will his request to be buried “in the ground, without particular ornamentation” but simply with the inscription “Franciscus”.
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