Forced to shield its school-children from the threat of supersonic Russian missiles fired at short range, Ukraine’s eastern metropolis of Kharkiv has built dozens of classrooms in metro stations to allow some pupils to return to in-person teaching.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, had a population of more than 1.4 million before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Parts of the city lie less than 20 miles from the Russian border. Its northern suburbs were scarred by fighting.
Kharkiv’s schools have been forced to teach online throughout the war as some Russian missiles can reach the city in under a minute — not enough time to get from many classrooms to a shelter.
Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Tuesday that 60 schoolrooms have been created in Kharkiv’s metro stations ahead of the new school year in September, creating space for more than 1,000 children to study in person.
“The children will be able to socialise with each other, find a common language, communicate. I absolutely support this,” said Iryna Loboda, the mother of a schoolboy outside a metro station in the city centre where classrooms have been built.
Grain routes
The US is working with Romania and Moldova to increase Ukraine’s grain exports via the Danube river as it explores alternative routes for the exports after Russia pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a senior US state department official said on Wednesday.
“We are looking to support alternative routes: that is most prominently the Danube route. That route... stays within Nato territorial waters. So it’s one that’s very attractive for us because it keeps it into a more secure corridor,” the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters.
“That (route) potentially can bring a significant amount, potentially, we’ll try to double the amount going to that route,” the official said.
There will be a meeting in the coming weeks with the Romanians and Moldovans to discuss how to maximize the Danube route, the official said.
The grain deal, brokered by Turkey and the United Nations in July 2022, allowed for the safe export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. Last month Moscow exited the deal, accusing the West of hampering Russia’s own grain exports.
