Ukraine Education Hit by Almost 2,000 Attacks: UNICEF Says Air Raid Alarms Have Taken an Average of 34 Hours of School Time This Year
Ukraine has sustained almost 2,000 attacks on education since the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, with some 270 this year alone, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on November 3, a day after a strike at a school being used to distribute aid in the Zaporizhzhia region.
UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires said that since the start of the academic year, children have experienced an average of 34 hours of air raid alarms during school time, equivalent to more than 13 per cent of scheduled learning time, up to 20 October, with some regions impacted by 60-plus hours of alerts. In Kyiv, air raid alarms increased from 12 in September 2025 to 71 in September 2026. In Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad and Kharkiv regions, children have experienced more than 60 hours of school-time alarms, equivalent to approximately one quarter of scheduled learning hours, affecting more than 560,000 children.
The UN's top aid official in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, condemned Monday's attack on a school and shelter in Komyshuvakha, Zaporizhzhia region, that reportedly killed at least 29 civilians; the majority of the victims were residents who came to get aid at a local school and employees of the local administration, and subsequent strikes at the same location killed two rescuers and four police staff, with nearly 50 people still missing.
Mr. Pires shared the testimony of 15-year-old Katia from the Mykolaiv region, who has just returned to in-person school but still spends most of her school day in a shelter because of air raids, and he reiterated the visible mental health toll the war continues to take on Ukrainian children, many of whom have to learn underground. Maysa Jabout, head of the UN global fund Education Cannot Wait, said the huge impact of war everywhere on children has forced the fund to prioritise funding for psychosocial counselling, carving away essential money needed for teaching and learning.
Related: Russian Bombing of Ukrainian Aid Distribution Point Kills 31, About 48 Missing
(Source: UN News)
Source: UN News
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：乌克兰哈尔科夫，学童在地铁站里上课。乌克兰内政部摄，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: School lessons in a Kharkiv metro station, Ukraine. Photo by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
