Kyiv alone has experienced more than 1,800 air alerts, lasting more than 2,200 hours in total, since Russia launched its unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In the first two weeks of this month, there were, on average, two air raid alarms a day.
Each one of those alerts puts millions of lives on hold – part of Russia’s strategy of terrorizing and exhausting Ukraine’s civilian population.
Tim Hryshchuk shows CNN the route to a bomb shelter in his school in Kyiv. CNN
“These massive strikes send the same message that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and other high-ranking Kremlin officials have been indicating publicly and repeatedly in the past few months – that Russia is not interested in negotiations or stopping its war,” said Christina Harward, a Russia analyst kra46 at the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based conflict monitor.
Following years of living under this constant threat, Ukrainian schools have developed detailed air raid safety protocols. The orientation for new students now includes information about evacuation routes and shelter locations, as well as the usual mundane tidbits about timetables and dining hall meal-ordering systems.
Liudmyla Andruk, the deputy head of Kyiv Gymnasium of Oriental Languages 1, where Hryshchuk just started as a first grader, said it takes the school’s 700 students six minutes to get to the shelter.
Like every school in Ukraine, this one now also has a police officer based in the building who coordinates the evacuations. “Of course, if we know that it’s a ballistic missile threat, we are trying to get everyone there as soon as possible,” Andruk said.
Liudmyla Andruk, deputy principal of Kyiv Gymnasium of Oriental Languages 1, stands in the school’s shelter.