Kharkiv is digging huge bomb shelters with entire classrooms, showers and kitchens. ‘This is our future’

A meters-high gray concrete wall protrudes above the ground. It is the entrance to a future bomb shelter, deep underground, on a school site that Ukrainian construction workers are working on in the Kharkiv area. The shelter must be six to ten meters deep, offer space for four hundred people and will be equipped with classrooms, among other things. According to construction site manager Vladyslav Khudokormov, it can withstand an impact from an S-300, a frequently used Russian missile that carries more than a hundred kilos of explosive.

From this school in northeastern Ukraine, for security reasons the location and name are not mentioned, Russia is almost fifty kilometers away as the crow flies. The Russian threat will always be there, Khudokormov (25) is well aware, even if there is peace. Russia can fire missiles and drones into Ukraine from its own territory without any interference. In recent weeks it has stepped up its drone and missile attacks across Ukraine, resulting in deaths and injuries.

“I would like to see a sea created where Russian territory is now,” says Khedokormov grimly. “Then we won’t have such a neighbor anymore.” Looking to the future, Ukraine is building new bomb shelters for schools and hospitals to protect its people.

Remote school

The schoolyard next to the construction site is quiet and empty. The only noise that can be heard comes from machines and a crane. The school was damaged due to shelling. Brown chipboards are placed in front of window frames.

“We had hoped that we could go back to school after the pandemic,” says school director Svitlana Volchkova in the school yard. Then came February 24, 2022, the day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and things became too dangerous. ‘Her’ children have not been to school since then. They have been receiving digital lessons for about four years now. Volchkova (53) deeply regrets it. It is bad for their development. “Children should meet each other at school. They need to see their teachers.”

With the new air raid shelter, which is financed by the state, the children can continue their lessons there if the air raid siren goes off. In addition to the classrooms, there is a kitchen, shower, heating, ventilation and toilet. There is a lift for children with disabilities. Construction is ahead of schedule, says Khedokormov with some pride. “We are doing everything we can so that the children can go to school from September, in the new school year.”

Goal

Educational institutions suffer from the war. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Education, almost 3,500 kindergartens, schools and other educational buildings have been damaged since February 2022, of which more than 360 have been destroyed. At the end of November, 1.9 million students could not go to school. Shelters, the ministry writes, are crucial to helping students return to school. Hospitals are also hit by Russian attacks.

The wave of Russian attacks in recent weeks has put the utmost strain on Ukrainian air defenses. For this purpose, Ukraine relies on equipment supplied by the West, such as the Patriot air defense system. Russia appears intent on depleting Western supplies as the United States and the European Union fail to come through with new military and financial support for Ukraine. During his tour of the Baltic countries this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized the importance of good anti-aircraft defenses.

When visiting a second school in another village outside Kharkiv, it is quiet at the construction site of a new air-raid shelter. It’s lunch break for the construction workers. Here too, an air raid shelter with classrooms is under construction, suitable for five hundred people. The students will partly continue to receive home education and partly take lessons at school. “This is our future,” explains attending official Natalija Pegar (46). “If we don’t give the children a good education, we cannot rebuild Ukraine.” There will be two new air raid shelters in the village itself.

In the hallway inside the school building, where there are sandbags to protect the windows, Alina Ovgarenko (35) waits for her daughter Arina (6). He is rehearsing for a performance. The students are given twenty minutes for the rehearsal. Then they have to leave the school for safety reasons.

Either we live like moles underground, or we build an anti-aircraft defense system and live above ground. It depends on which path we want to take

Alina does not dare to send her child to daily lessons in the current war conditions. “The Russians spare nothing and no one with their attacks. Schools, houses – everything is being bombed. We need fallout shelters.”

The construction of the bomb shelters indicates that Ukraine is preparing for the future. But with a permanent Russian threat, should more underground construction be built? Like underground shopping centers. At the construction site of the new bomb shelter of the second school visited, foreman Dmitro Koezyn (39) doesn’t think so. “Many will be closed during the air raid siren. It is better to build a shelter near a hospital or a school. Shopping centers often already have underground parking spaces. You can hide there. You have to invest your money in things where it is relevant.” The mayor of Kharkiv announced last year that he would have an underground school built.

Hopital

More than a hundred kilometers further south, the city center of Izjoem was destroyed. Every building is damaged. The central city hospital is located on the edge of the center. During the fighting for the city and when the Russians captured Izyum, the underground passages provided space for 80 to 120 patients for six months. In September 2022, Ukraine liberated the city. The front is now more than fifty kilometers to the east.

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There are sixty beds in the underground hospital corridors in case patients need to take shelter again. The outer walls of the hospital are riddled with shrapnel holes. The elevator shaft was destroyed by a bombing.

In the office of medical director Bohdan Berezhnoy (31), there are construction drawings of the future new hospital on the wall, with underground rooms where patients can be treated and bomb shelters. Nowadays, according to building regulations, this is mandatory, says Berezhnoy. From his room he sees the construction workers at work.

Berezhnoy is skeptical about a future with an extensive supply of fallout shelters. In his view, only the Ukrainian armed forces can actually protect the population with anti-aircraft defenses. “A fallout shelter does not save people. People are saved by the absence of missiles. It took us two days to move all the patients to the basement. There are three or four air raid sirens a day in Ukraine. With the speed of some rockets you don’t have time to look for a bomb shelter. And then, do you have to run back and forth between your workplace and air raid shelter when the air raid siren keeps going off?”

According to him, there are two future options for Ukraine. “Either we live like moles underground, or we build an anti-aircraft system and live above ground. It depends on which path we want to take.”

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