Under siege in Ukraine, schools go underground to keep life as normal as possible for children

Published

7 months ago

November 17, 2024

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If you know a teacher, or you are a teacher, you’ll understand that many in the profession consider their jobs one of the best in the world, while also acknowledging it can be one of the most stressful.

Teaching in a war zone takes it to another level on both fronts.

But imagine teaching in a war zone in say the London Underground or the Paris or New York metros?

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Well, that’s exactly what is happening in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city – a city attacked by Russia on a constant basis.

In 2023, the authorities banned children from being taught in regular school buildings here because of the threat they were under from missile strikes.

So Kharkiv city and its education department started working on a plan.

That plan has concluded with the construction of six schools in six metro stations, teaching 4,800 children daily whose families haven’t fled the war.

Intrigued by this new educational experiment, as it’s still considered, we were told to meet at the University metro station in the centre of the city and wait to be taken to the school.

Soviet-era metro stations, and particularly the platforms, are universally grand and ornate, although Ukraine’s are slightly more modest.

Pedestrian walkways though are always crammed with florists, newspaper stands, mobile phone shops and cafes, and Kharkiv’s are no different.

What is different though is that next to the main platform entrance, an adjacent passageway has been sealed off by a white wall with three doors built into it.

We were ushered inside, past a guard and into a concourse with two desks.

In front of us, we could see a wide staircase leading to a long corridor. Above us, large, shiny silver metal tubes stretched into the distance, pumping in air from above ground.

Lining the corridor, we could see a series of white interconnecting cabins, all brightly lit, and from them, we could hear the sounds of children laughing, music, and teachers conducting class in this strange subterranean school.

Perhaps the only school in the world with one corridor.

A door to one of the classes opened, and in pairs, a class of six and seven-year-olds emerged – their teacher at the front and an assistant at the rear.

They’re heading to the bathroom for a toilet break, the staff must keep an eye on them.

If any of the children were to make it out of the school, they could easily get lost in the underground system.

The pupils are spread across seven classrooms with a mix of yellow and green desks and chairs, and walls decorated with bright pictures like rainbows, sunshine and sunflowers, to try to create a cheery atmosphere.

“At first, the children were bewildered by studying here, it felt unfamiliar to them, but interacting with each other and with their teachers helped them to adapt,” Iryna Tarasenko from Kharkiv’s education department told me.

Iryna is showing me around the school. They feel it’s their way of contributing to the war effort.

She said: “In the summer of 2023, the Defence Council didn’t permit children to study in regular school buildings, so, we had to find a solution. This is our frontline – our educational frontline.”

There are of course health concerns for both the teachers and the pupils spending so much time underground, so medical examinations are done on a regular basis.

It is an opportunity for doctors and behavioural specialists to monitor the effects of this war on them.

Dmytro Mitelyov is the neurologist on duty monitoring the children’s behaviour, checking for any signs of stress – physical and mental.

He gently asks each child how they’re feeling, and asks if they have any aches and pains.

“These are children who haven’t left Kharkiv since the war began, they live in a constant state of stress, multifaceted stress caused by a range of factors. They are exposed to things they see and hear, like alarms, explosions, and they feel it all,” Dmytro told me.

“When these children grow older, all the trauma they’ve endured during their formative years can, unfortunately, leave a lasting and serious imprint on their mental health. They haven’t had a healthy, carefree childhood – the kind where they can learn, play, and feel safe as children normally would.”

As the first group’s school day ends, children from one of Kharkiv’s most bombed districts, wrap up warm before being led to the surface to catch a school bus to their old school – which was hit by a missile.

It’s still where they meet their parents for normal pick-up.

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We jump on the bus with them for the journey past destroyed government buildings, shopping centres and restaurants.

When the air raid suddenly sounds, I look around to see how the children and teachers on this bus will react.

They barely flinch it’s so common.

“People have, to some extent, adapted,” one of the headmistresses, Olena Nikolienko, said.

“If we see missiles coming, heaven forbid, we’ll stop near a designated shelter, following our evacuation plan, and that’s where the children will go for cover.”

Remember, these children are safe underground at school, up here they are not.

During the bus ride, 10-year-old Alisa began quietly sobbing. Her teacher told me her grandfather was killed four months ago on the frontline, and since then she has been prone to tears.

Alisa’s teacher comforted her and told her everything would be ok.

It feels like everyone here has to carry their own sadness.

Everyone.

Parents, standing in the first snowfall of the season, greet the children as they get off the bus.

The kids run off the bus, and start throwing snowballs at each other, enjoying this precious moment.

It will be the last time they’re outside today.

World

Zelenskyy says Putin could attack a NATO member ‘within five years’ to test alliance

Published

1 hour ago

June 24, 2025

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Zelenskyy says Putin could attack a NATO member 'within five years' to test alliance

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told Sky News that Vladimir Putin could attack a NATO country within five years to test the alliance.

The Ukrainian president made the comments in an interview with chief presenter Mark Austin.

But when asked if Russia could attack within months, Mr Zelenskyy said he did not “believe [Putin] is ready”.

Mr Zelenskyy also said plans for NATO members to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 are “very slow” – adding: “We believe that, starting from 2030, Putin can have significantly greater capabilities.

“Today, Ukraine is holding him up, he has no time to drill the army.”

Russia’s soldiers are “all getting annihilated and wiped out at the battlefield”, he warned.

“In any case, [Putin] needs a pause, he needs sanctions to be lifted, he needs a drilled army.

“And 10 years is a very long time. He will have a new army ready [by then].”

Zelenskyy appeared defiant – but he’s struggling to make himself heard

Mark Austin

Chief presenter

He’s an embattled wartime leader struggling to make himself heard. For Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the war in Iran could not have come at a worse time.

Suddenly the world’s attention is on a different conflict and most crucially so is the attention of the most powerful man in the world, Donald Trump.

But this is a big 24 hours for Zelenskyy, a meeting with Sir Keir Starmer in Downing Street followed by the NATO summit in The Hague.

When I sat down with President Zelenskyy in the last few hours he had two main issues on his mind.

Firstly, the proposed spending pledge by NATO countries of 5% of GDP by 2035 – that he said was too slow and warned that Putin would be ready with a new army within five years. He said the Russian leader would likely attack a NATO country within a few years to test Article 5.

Then he was on to sanctions, which he told me, were not working. Countries, including the UK, were allowing dual use components used in the production of drones and missiles to still get into Russian hands and must be blocked.

He also still insisted there would be no negotiations without a ceasefire. This war is not going well for Ukraine right now.

Three-and-a-half years into it, the fighting goes on and Zelenskyy appeared to be a defiant president determined to see it through.

The UK and its NATO allies will formally sign off the defence spending plans when the heads of state and government meet in The Hague today and tomorrow.

The spending goal is broken down into 3.5% of GDP to be spent on pure defence and 1.5% of GDP on related areas, such as infrastructure and cybersecurity.

Defence spending of 5% is the kind of level invested by NATO allies during the Cold War.

Mr Zelenskyy met Sir Keir Starmer at Downing Street and Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle at parliament on Monday, before travelling to Windsor Castle for a meeting with the King.

The Ukrainian president has been invited to the NATO summit, but will not take part in its main discussions. It is still unclear whether he will attend.

You can watch the full interview throughout the day on Sky News

World

Iran says it’s carried out ‘mighty and successful’ attack on US base – as Qatar air defences ‘thwart assault’

Published

4 hours ago

June 23, 2025

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Iran says it's carried out 'mighty and successful' attack on US base - as Qatar air defences 'thwart assault'

Iran claims it has carried out a “mighty and successful response” to “America’s aggression” after launching missile attacks on a US military base in Qatar and Iraq.

The attack comes after the US dropped “bunker buster bombs” on three key nuclear sites in Iran over the weekend.

Iran’s response this evening is the latest escalation in tensions in the volatile region.

Qatar has said there were no casualties at the al Udeid base following the strikes and that its “air defences thwarted the attack and successfully intercepted the Iranian missiles”.

People in Qatar’s capital, Doha, had stopped and gazed up at the sky as missiles flew and interceptors fired.

Follow latest: Iran attacks US bases

Iran had announced on state television that it had attacked American forces stationed at the al Udeid airbase.

A caption on screen called it “a mighty and successful response” to “America’s aggression” as martial music played.

Initial reports claimed Iran had also targeted a base housing US troops in western Iraq, but a US military official later told Reuters news agency the attack in Qatar was the only one detected.

A US government official said the White House and US defence department was “closely monitoring” the potential threats to its base.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump was in the Situation Room in the White House with his team following the Iranian strikes.

He later said in a post on Truth Social that the missiles were a “very weak response”, which the US “expected” and “very effectively countered”.

He added: “Most importantly, they’ve gotten it all out of their ‘system,’ and there will, hopefully, be no further HATE.

“I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured.

“Perhaps Iran can now proceed to Peace and Harmony in the Region, and I will enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a post on X: “We have not violated anyone’s rights, nor will we ever accept anyone violating ours, and we will not surrender to anyone’s violation; this is the logic of the Iranian nation.”

The attacks came shortly after Qatar closed its airspace as a precaution amid threats from Iran.

Just before the explosions, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on the social platform X: “We neither initiated the war nor seeking it. But we will not leave invasion to the great Iran without answer.”

Kuwait and Bahrain briefly shut their airspaces after the attack, news agencies in each country reported.

Iraq also shut its airspace, while Oman Air suspended some flights in the region.

The Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways said it is rerouting several flights today and tomorrow due to restrictions in parts of the Middle East.

World

US strikes: How much damage has been done to Iran’s nuclear facilities?

Published

4 hours ago

June 23, 2025

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US strikes: How much damage has been done to Iran's nuclear facilities?

Three of Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities – Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan – were targeted in US airstrikes on 22 June.

The prime target of the attacks was Iran’s most advanced facility at Fordow, suspected of being used to enrich uranium close to what’s needed for a nuclear bomb.

Satellite images from the aftermath of the US strikes suggest at least six bombs were dropped there.

The secure nuclear facility, home to Iran’s main enrichment site, is buried deep under a mountain.

So exactly how much damage was done is unknown, perhaps even to Iran, which appears to have evacuated the site. The specific location of the strikes and the bombs used gives us an indication.

America used the 30,000-lb Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, or a GBU-57 – commonly known as a “bunker buster”.

The bunker buster is the only missile that had a chance of destroying the Fordow facility, and American planes were needed for them to be used.

Blueprints from Iran’s Nuclear Archive, which date from before 2004 and were seized by Israeli spies in 2018, suggest the bombs targeted the tunnels under the Fordow site.

The access tunnels overground lead to a 250 metre long hall which is thought to contain the uranium enrichment centrifuges, and well as the location of what is thought to be ventilation shafts.

Iran is thought to have likely moved any enriched uranium from the facility before the strikes occurred. But if the ventilation shafts were hit, that would allow the bombs to penetrate as far as possible and hit the centrifuge hall itself.

Iran’s major nuclear facilities seriously damaged, if not completely destroyed

Tom Clarke

Science and technology editor

@t0mclark3

The loss of industrial-scale centrifuge “cascades” used to enrich uranium will certainly derail any imminent deadlines in weaponisation the Islamic Republic may have set itself – more on that below.

But it has already amassed a sizeable stockpile of highly enriched uranium and may even have already enriched some of it to the 90% or so needed to make fissile material necessary for a bomb.

And despite strikes on industrial scale facilities that have taken decades to generate that stockpile, the material itself weighs less than half a tonne.

Moving it, splitting it up, concealing it, is not beyond the wit of a nation that expected these assaults may be coming.

Iran’s nuclear programme is also more than its large-scale facilities. Iran has been developing nuclear expertise and industrial processes for decades. It would take more than a concerted bombing campaign to wipe that out.

The final steps to “weaponise” highly enriched uranium are technically challenging, but Iran was known to be working on them more than 20 years ago.

Iran also does not require industrial-scale facilities like those needed to enrich uranium, meaning they could be more easily concealed in a network of smaller, discrete lab-sized buildings.

But what’s far from clear is whether Iran had actually taken steps towards weaponisation in recent years.

Recent US intelligence assessments indicated that it hadn’t. Iran’s leaders knew that very significant moves towards making a bomb would be seen as a major escalation by its neighbours and the international community.

For a long time, a key deterrent to Iran developing a nuclear weapon has been an internal political one.

It’s possible of course that position may have been shifting and these latest strikes were designed to disarm a rapidly weaponising Iran.

But it’s also possible the attacks on its nuclear programme may be forcing a previously tentative government to push harder towards making a nuclear bomb.

Fordow is only one of three nuclear facilities targeted in America’s strike, however, and one of seven that have been targeted since the conflict began.

Natanz’s uranium enrichment facility, about 140 km south of Fordow, had been subject to multiple Israeli strikes before America’s advance.

Israeli raids targeted surface buildings, including stores of enriched uranium. However, post-strike radiation monitoring suggested there was little, if any, nuclear material there.

At the weekend, Americans dropped bunker-buster bombs there too, targeting thousands of enrichment centrifuges operating in bunkers below.

Then there is the Isfahan complex. Again, Israeli missiles destroyed a number of buildings there last week. And at the weekend, US cruise missiles targeted others, including the uranium conversion plant.

At the weekend, Americans also dropped bunker-buster bombs there, targeting thousands of enrichment centrifuges operating in bunkers below.

Speaking from the White House after the attacks, Donald Trump said facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated”. But experts suggest it could take more to destroy it entirely.

“This is a very well-developed, long-standing programme with a lot of latent expertise in the country,” said Darya Dolzikova, a proliferation and nuclear security expert at RUSI, a UK defence and security thinktank

“I don’t think we’re talking about a full elimination at this point, certainly not by military means.”

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.