The students of Kharkiv Secondary School No.26 in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, are facing a difficult situation. The school has been closed since the full-scale invasion in February last year, and many of their classmates have fled the dangers of the city to complete their final year of school in safer parts of the country or abroad. Those who remain in Kharkiv from the class of 2023 plan to film their graduation dance and share it with classmates who have been forced away by the war.
A graduation dance is a tradition in Ukrainian schools, and it happens on the last day of the school year. The students give a concert, the 11th grade dances, and then they all go celebrating with their relatives and other pupils. For now, they have permission from the government to do this, but they can’t know for sure.
The students are dancing on the asphalt in the grounds outside their classrooms. Inside the school is off-limits. All educational facilities in Kharkiv have been closed since the invasion. The school has already been struck once, and many school buildings across Ukraine have been shut down over safety concerns.
There’s a strong feeling in Kharkiv that schools and other educational facilities have been deliberately targeted by Russian missiles as a way of eroding Ukrainian culture and identity. When you look at the numbers, it’s hard to argue against this theory. Six-hundred-and-thirty-four educational institutions have been destroyed or damaged throughout the network. Among them, almost the majority are institutions of general secondary education, that is, schools. To date, the number of them destroyed and damaged in the entire region is almost 500.
The Eyes on Russia project at the Centre for Information Resilience has been mapping the attacks on Kharkiv’s educational facilities since February last year. The project’s deputy lead Belén Carrasco Rodriguez told the ABC their evidence shows that Kharkiv schools have been deliberately targeted. In July 2022, they saw that although the front line had shifted from Kharkiv, there was an increase in the shelling of educational facilities in Kharkiv City. An analysis of the surroundings of these educational facilities suggested that these were targeted attacks and not a by-product of indiscriminate shelling.
Ms Carrasco Rodriguez says directly targeting schools could constitute a war crime. A lot of children have lost their access to education, especially in frontline areas, and others have had to shift to online education or move to other schools. The targeting of schools is a clear breach of Russia’s obligations under the Geneva Convention.
Kharkiv has long been a centre of education for local and foreign students. Oleksiy Litvinov finds the attacks on Kharkiv’s educational institutions to be particularly galling given how many Russians have received an education in the city. Since the early Soviet times, it has always been a student town. They had the largest number of universities, institutes and academies during the independence of Ukraine. The largest contingent of student youth. It is painful and bitter for them, given the fact that many neighbours [Russians] studied in Kharkiv, came here for scientific conferences, symposiums and other events.
It’s been a tough 15 months for the students of Kharkiv Secondary School No.26. Viktoria Kulish says adjusting to online schooling in a warzone was incredibly hard. At the start of the war, they were in a bomb shelter. In the first days, they worked on Zoom. It was difficult, few people joined the meeting. She tried to keep studying because life does not stand still. When there were air alarms, they worried about each other.
Despite all they have been through, the class of 2023 has high hopes for the future. They want to apply to university to become a paediatrician to treat children in Ukraine, become a computer programmer, or work as a translator. They want to let the world know about their problems, about everything that is happening in their country. And there’s another priority that dominates their thinking as they finish up their final-year exams. They hope the war ends and that there will be peace in the world and in their country.
In conclusion, the students of Kharkiv Secondary School No.26 are facing a difficult situation due to the war in Ukraine. Their school has been closed since the full-scale invasion in February last year, and many of their classmates have fled the dangers of the city to complete their final year of school in safer parts of the country or abroad. Despite all they have been through, the class of 2023 has high hopes for the future and wants to let the world know about their problems, about everything that is happening in their country. They hope the war ends and that there will be peace in the world and in their country.