After more than 18 months of closure, schools in the country’s second-largest city, located not far from the front line and Ukraine’s northern border with Russia, are gradually reopening. In order to protect students and teachers, the municipality has set up a program to develop and build underground schools. We visited one of these schools in Saltivka, the city’s largest district.
Gray concrete under a gray sky. In mid-December, the Saltivka district, northeast of Kharkiv, is lined with long Soviet buildings and wide avenues covered in a thin layer of snow. Entrances, all similar, are clean but often dilapidated, except for one. Sharp-edged lintels and jambs, light-colored concrete, an immaculate door in a bright color… Everything points to a recent construction. Beyond this door, a well-heated entrance hall, freshly painted in shades of green, leads to a stairwell that differs from its counterparts: flights of stairs and landings descend underground, far underground.
Sheltered from drones, bombs, and missiles
Welcome to one of Kharkiv’s underground schools, where 1,430 pupils attend classes sheltered from the indiscriminate bombing that rains down day and night on the country’s former capital. “The school opened on September 1,” says Natalia Vorobiova, communications officer for the Kharkiv City Council’s education department. Calm and precise in her answers, Natalia is clearly an expert on the subject. She will be our guide in the school, which seems to be the pride of the city council.
The figures are indeed impressive. This 1,700-square meter complex is located “more than seven meters underground and was built in just nine months,” says Natalia, as we walk down a long corridor decorated with tinsel and other Christmas decorations. The protective walls welcome “students from the 1st to the 11th grades [Editor’s note: pupils aged 6 to 18], in 16 classrooms,” she continues, before pushing open a door.
As we enter, around twenty children react as they should with a long “hello” and, out of politeness, stand up from their seats with big smiles on their faces. Their questioning looks seek to understand the reason for this sudden intrusion. “It’s a math class,” says the teacher, pointing to the interactive whiteboard, which is brand new, like the rest of the furniture. We do not impose ourselves any longer.
Anticipation and organization
To ensure the complete autonomy of the underground school, nothing has been overlooked. We discover an infirmary, a water pumping system, cisterns… A generator and autonomous internet communication complete this methodical organization reminiscent of the Maginot Line.
The construction of the school was strictly supervised by state services. “They check the emergency exits, the ventilation systems, the level of protection… Regulations also impose a minimum number of square meters per pupil,” explains Natalia, who points out that it is “forbidden to teach in schools that only have basic shelters.”
In order to guarantee access to the school for all pupils in the neighborhood, continues Serhiy Makeïev, the school head who joins us during our visit, “classes are organized into two daily sessions: some attend school from 8:30 am to 1 pm, while others attend from 1 pm to 4 pm“. Thanks to this rotation system, children in the neighborhood have been able to resume part of their in-person education. The premises are not large enough to provide permanent access to the school for every child in the neighborhood.
Return to class welcomed
The opening of the school, says Anna Yatsenko, a Ukrainian teacher we meet in the entrance hall, was “well received” by parents. From February 2022 to September 2023, recalls her colleague Olga Skydan, an English and French teacher, teaching took place exclusively online. “Some parents couldn’t stand seeing their children spend their days in front of a screen anymore,” she says sympathetically.
This is because online teaching, while convenient in extreme situations, has shown its limitations in terms of educational effectiveness and from a social perspective. “Some pupils, having stayed at home for so long, no longer knew how to behave in society, but since [in person] classes resumed, we have seen the situation improve,” says Olga.
This is not the city’s first attempt at such a program, and the prospect of sending children to study underground is now widely accepted, in Saltivka as elsewhere. The first underground schools, Natalia recalls, opened in September 2023 in metro stations that were closed for the occasion. “During the first few days,” she recalls, “we had to reassure parents about the robustness of these facilities, but after a week, they were convinced.”
When asked about the limitations that this underground confinement might impose, the teachers are reassuring. Here, explains Anna, it is “possible to teach normally.” The only drawback is that outdoor activities remain impossible. As the head explains, teachers are not allowed to go outside with pupils for safety reasons. At the end of the hallway, laughter and the pitter-patter of footsteps can be heard.
Dispelling the fog of war
The tour resumes. Natalia opens another door. A few pupils aged around ten turn around; the others remain focused. “Here, we offer pupils relaxation sessions,” she says, greeting the psychologist. Twenty kilometers from the front line, such support is invaluable for the children, especially since in 2022, fighting took place in the district itself before the Russian army was pushed back. “Kyivsky [Editor’s note: a neighboring district] and Saltivka were among the most affected at the beginning of the war,” the head points out. “But now, any of the nine districts could be bombed.”
These bad memories are not the only causes of psychological distress for pupils. Some have lost relatives; others have had to flee the fighting or occupied territories with their families. “The school has more than 200 displaced pupils,” continues the head. He says their integration is going smoothly. Coming from the oblasts of Kharkiv, Sumy, Donetsk, Luhansk, and elsewhere, thousands of refugees have rebuilt their lives here in Kharkiv, despite the proximity of the front line. Back in the entrance hall, the discussion continues in the cafeteria.
Kharkiv still lacks schools
Apart from the school we are visiting, Natalia points out, six others have been built underground. The first underground schools, set up in metro stations in 2023, still exist and a new station has since been converted. Children and teenagers are also welcomed in existing premises that have suitable concrete shelters.
Of the nearly 105,000 students in the metropolitan area, “about 18,000” are now able to follow “a mixed program of in-person and distance learning,” she says. Many more protected structures will have to be built to enable every pupil to attend at least some of their classes in person. “Three more underground schools are currently under construction and will begin operating in early 2026,” she adds confidently.
The challenge is daunting, but Natalia emphasizes, “I don’t feel that we lack support.” She points out that the city council is assisted in carrying out its program by various institutions. “As a region crossed by the front line,” she continues, “we receive financial support from the state, which allows us to fund meals for the 5the – 11the sections [Editor’s note: pupils aged 12-18].” In addition to state aid, she continues, many NGOs and international organizations support the municipality’s program.
A well-equipped model
There are indeed many signs of solidarity. The Ukrainian association Osvitchena Initsiatyva and the German association GIZ have contributed to furnishing the classrooms, and Finn Church Aid has helped finance psychological support sessions for pupils. The Japanese government has financed the purchase of school buses, while the city has signed a partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund and receives aid from the World Food Program to finance meals for pupils. Thanks to this support, Natalia says, “all the conditions are in place to provide inclusive education for children.”
In addition, she adds, cooperation between the cities of Kharkiv and Lille, in northern France, continues, as part of the twinning arrangement that has united the two cities since 1978. She explains that four groups of children were sent to Lille between April 2024 and August 2025 to take part in what the French city council describes as “respite stays.” According to Natalia, the Kharkiv City Council’s underground school project is now seen as a model in Ukraine. “Schools of this kind are being built in Zaporizhia and Mykolaiv. The mayors of towns near the front line came to meet us because the first underground school [in Ukraine] was opened in Kharkiv on the initiative of the mayor, Ihor Terekhov. We shared our experience with them.“ Over the coming year, she concludes, the city council wants to take on a new challenge: opening ”Ukraine’s first underground nursery.”
Antoine Laurent is a freelance journalist. A contributor to the Swiss bimonthly Echo Magazine, the Italian media Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa, and other publications on a more ad hoc basis (Le Courrier de Genève, Linkiesta, etc.).