As Ukraine's students begin the academic year, a group of children returned to their shattered school in Chernihiv to reflect on how war had affected their lives. The school was shelled in March, and two of the students speak of a classmate who was killed in that attack.
In Their Bombed-Out School, Portraits Of Ukrainian Children Touched By War
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The former students of school No. 21 in Chernihiv now share a different common experience: Every student has become familiar with the sound of an air-raid siren and can distinguish between the sounds of anti-aircraft weapons and cruise missiles.
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"What happened is a tragedy. I have already cried out about everything I lost. I miss my school, friends, and teachers. But there will be a new school, new teachers, and friends. The most important thing is that life goes on," said Khrystyna Ignatova, 16, as she views her former classroom that was bombed by Russian forces on March 3.
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"I feel offended when I'm at my school. I resent that the Russians destroyed my school," said Ivan Hubenko, 11 as he walks through the shattered courtyard where he and his friends once played.
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"When my school was bombed, I was terrified. We live nearby. Our windows were damaged, and my mother could have died because the door almost pressed her to the wall. And the chandelier almost fell on me," said Karina Muzyka, 10, who visits the shattered school every day to play with her friends.
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"I'm very sad. I can't believe this happened to my school," said Anna Skiban, 12.
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"When I'm in my classroom, I think about how much I want the war to end," said Oleksandr Morhunov, 13, sitting in his old classroom.
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"I wanted to graduate here. This school feels like home to me," said Anastasia Avramenko, 13.
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"At first, I was scared to come to the school after it was bombed. For a long time, I was just looking at it from a distance. At those moments, it seemed like nothing ever happened," said Sofia Zhyr, 14, whose classmate died during the shelling.
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Sofia Klyshnia, 12, stands amid the rubble of her former classroom, in the same place where her desk once stood. "It's scary to stand in the destroyed part of the class where I once studied," she said.
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"When I'm at school, I think about the person who died in the debris. I feel deeply sorry for her," said Mykhaylo Kravchenko, 12, as he views a hole where his computer class once was.
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There is currently no plan or budget for the reconstruction of school No. 21. When school opened on September 1, these students were scattered to wherever classrooms are available.
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According to Ukraine's General Prosecutors office, at least 379 children have been killed since the war began.
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The whereabouts of 223 children are still unknown.
