Kharkiv starts building Ukraine’s first underground school to protect children

Ukraine has started building an underground shelter school in the village of Korotych in Kharkiv Region, head of the regional military administration, Oleh Sinegubov, announced in his Telegram channel.

According to him, it is actually a school underground, where children will be able to stay and study in safety. The room will be able to accommodate up to 500 people. It will cost about 99.1 million hryvnias ($2.7 million) to build such a school.

Sinehubov said that the underground shelter will be equipped with several rooms, sanitary rooms, three exits, and an autonomous source of electricity. Such a school will be able to withstand a direct hit by a S-300 missile and other munitions.

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, had a population of more than 1.4 million before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The war, which has no end in sight, has killed thousands and displaced millions of civilians. Ukraine’s ministry of educations says that 363 educational institutions have been destroyed and nearly 3,800 damaged throughout the country.