UKRAINIAN kids are being taught inside bomb-proof classrooms in underground bunkers as they head back to school for the new term.
Schools in Ukraine have welcomed pupils back to bunkers kitted out with desks, toys, blankets and first aid kits as Russian forces continue to pound the war-torn country.
Six million Ukrainian children returned to school on Thursday, with parents asked to choose between remote or in-person teaching.
And only schools which don't face a regular threat of bombing from Putin's troops will reopen.
Where schools can open their doors, teachers have transformed basements into bomb shelters and have been trained on what to do in case of an attack.
Kids who come to the classroom must also carry an emergency bag with a change of clothes.
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Sharing bleak images of the new underground classrooms, Dmytro Lunin, the governor of the Poltava region in central Ukraine, said the safety of pupils remains their top priority.
"Poltava is ready for the start of the academic year in various formats. Parents choose the form of education," he said.
"Our priority remains unchanged – safety. Thanks to Ukrainian defenders, children in Poltava region can study online and offline."
Lunin said the process of bomb-proofing schools across the region is in "full swing".
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"There are 533 schools in the region – 160 of them are ready, and about 130 more in the process of preparation," he said.
"The district and communities are doing everything right now to make sure schools have the right shelter.
"The children's safety comes first."
President Volodymyr Zelensky visited a school on Thursday which was damaged in March by the Russians and will now welcome 1,300 pupils back.
He inspected the school's basement – which has been "set up to shelter students during air raids".
"We are working to ensure that every Ukrainian war-damaged educational institution resumed operations, and our children were safe and nothing prevented them from gaining knowledge," he said.
It comes after students and teachers in Borodianka, a town just north of Kyiv, returned to their school this week to find it had been trashed by Russian soldiers.
The teachers found the soldiers had used classrooms as toilets, left rubbish everywhere and destroyed whiteboards, PE equipment, TVs and computers, The Guardian reports.
They also plastered the walls with anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia graffiti and dug trenches behind the school.
Almost all of the school’s windows have been covered with sheets of plastic after being blown out by missile strikes.
Inna Romaniuk, the headteacher, said the school was in the process of being fixed up and they hoped to reopen next year.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general said 2,300 schools and colleges have been hit by the Russians since the start of the war in February, with 286 destroyed.
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And hundreds of thousands of kids are living under Russian rule in the east and south of Ukraine, where Moscow is trying to impose a new Russian curriculum.
Teachers who refuse to cooperate face harsh punishments, including kidnapping and torture, according to Ukrainian officials.
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