EU and Lithuania allocate €15.5 million for school shelters in Ukraine

The European Union is providing €15 million for the construction of new school shelters in Ukraine. Lithuania, in turn, is providing an additional €0.5 million and taking responsibility for the implementation of this project.

This was announced by the Ambassador of the European Union to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernova.

"Russia's aggressive war is depriving thousands of Ukrainian children of a normal life and education. Our latest initiative underlines the EU's unwavering commitment to ensuring the safest possible educational environment for all children in Ukraine," she said.

One in seven Ukrainian schools has been damaged or destroyed due to the Russian aggressor's targeted destruction of civilian infrastructure: schools, kindergartens and other educational facilities.

About 1.6 million schoolchildren and 200,000 kindergarteners do not attend school or preschool, and about 900,000 children declare their desire to study remotely.

The bomb shelter initiative is another example of the European Union's support for Ukraine's education sector. It also continues the efforts of Lithuania and the CPVA to rebuild and support Ukraine.

The priority of this EU project is the regions of Ukraine that are currently most affected: Chernihiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and Odesa regions. In these frontline regions, at least 5 bomb shelters are planned to be built next to schools. 

All the new shelters will be located next to schools, underground and with radiation protection. Designed for 1,000 people, they will have an area of about 2,000 square metres. The new shelters will not only protect against attacks, they will also allow children to continue their education and participate in extracurricular activities during air raids, as they will be built like underground schools.

"Russia's brutal attacks on civilians are an attempt to break the will of Ukrainians to resist. But Ukraine has repeatedly proved that it lacks not the will to resist, but weapons. Western partners must understand the importance of military assistance and funding for civilian protection for Ukraine," said Gabrielius Landsbergis, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania.

"Our goal is to get as many children back to school as possible. To do this, safe shelters that meet the most modern requirements must be built nearby. So that children and teachers can not only hide from the bombs, but also continue their lessons and activities during the unfortunately regular air raids," adds Rasa Surauchene, Deputy Director of CPVA.   

A prerequisite for schools in Ukraine to be able to operate is to have a shelter or at least an equipped basement. There are currently more than 13,000 schools in Ukraine, 3,500 of which do not have these essential wartime facilities.

Together with the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Reconstruction, CPVA has identified the schools with the highest number of students that do not have minimum shelters. The construction of shelters for these schools will be the only missing link in the school-shelter-offline education chain, allowing around 5,000 students to return to offline education within a year and a half.