Ukrainian Kids Prepare Schools' Bomb Shelters In Time For Start Of Classes [Video]

Schools in Ukraine are preparing protective measures for students as they gear up for the start of the academic year this September, according to reports.

One school in Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine, converted a shooting gallery into a bomb shelter, U.S. government-funded outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported.

In an effort to help their school building get ready for the new academic year, children painted the bomb shelter's walls, according to the outlet.

"We're painting our school so that we can enjoy walking around even when there is an air-raid siren," said Polina Hrychenko, a girl who fled the Russian-occupied city of Sievierodonetsk, in a video shared by the outlet.

Some schools have introduced other protective measures, such as covering windows with sandbags and placing students behind two walls.

However, basements and sandbags are not enough to protect children from Russian missiles, some parents said.

Oksana Yakushko, a mother who brought her son from Kharkiv to Lviv, said she understands that online learning may have an impact on her child's socialization, but she noted that "we don't have a single bomb shelter that could withstand the impact of a missile weighing a ton or half a ton."

"Of course, he lacks communication with his peers. It would be great if he communicated [with them]. But dead children don't need to communicate," Yakushko told RFE/RL.

Schools in cities on or near the front line will be able to teach exclusively online, but Ukraine's Ministry of Education and Science recommended that schools return to in-person studies if possible.

Around 30% of schools across Ukraine said they will be ready to have in-person classes by September, Ukrainian officials said in early August.

New standards require schools to have fully equipped bomb shelters.

The bomb shelter of the school in Lviv can accommodate 900 people, but 1,206 students are expected to come to class in September, school director Iryna Koropetska said.

Students will either have to go to school in different shifts or follow a mixed-format study program split between days at school and days of distance learning.

Ukrainian parents can decide how their children will study, and the task is to give them viable options to choose from, according to officials.

Around 70% of parents prefer in-person learning for their children, the city council of Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, claimed.

Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, intentionally attacking buildings dedicated to education that are not military objectives during international and internal conflicts is a war crime.

Russian forces have repeatedly been accused of striking civilian targets such as schools in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, but the Russian government has dismissed these claims.