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AP first look, it’s a havoc. Infertile plot of land in the city caught some of the most serious struggles in between Russia and Ukraine.
As rockets, drones and “sliding bombs” terrorize the residents Zaporizhzhia Near the eastern front, it seems that it is possible that any illusion of normal life can continue.
But, seven meters underground, the country is hilesty to create a complaint with 1,000 students. With only discrete entrances and the ventilation unit above the ground, students turn around daily through the reinforced bunker.
School that has been opened just over a week, is located in one of the few parts of the southeastern Region of Zaporizhzhia who did not occupy the chemical forces from the first days of the Russian leader Vladimir PutinCompletely blown invasion in February 2022. years.
As part of the original attack, the Russians occupied the largest European nuclear power plant and Putin used the object, crowded Russian soldiers and tanks, as nuclear blackmail – his frightening tippers hanging on the continent.
AS 2025, Zaporizhzhia region faced brutal twisting in MoscowAttacks. Etonomy capital testified by Russian ballistic missiles on the city. However, his inhabitants remain unrelated and will never surrender.
Stores and businesses remain open along its hectic avenues, and Zaporizhzhia is a key industrial hub, steel production, aluminum and other metals.
As the night falls on short winter days, the lights shine with seven miles of Soborny and the prospectus, one of the longest European streets.
But the calm scene is illusory. Only one night in the past month, Moscow has launched 400 air and underground attacks on Ukrainian military positions and population centers in the region, lists its Governors Ivan Fedorov.
The aircraft on the attacks on the city, aim mainly civilian locations, produce regular tragedies. One Russian sliding attack-bomb 8. January killed 13 civilians and hurt about 30.
The new school, the head of Valentyna Yerashova tells me, takes his disciples and her name from the existing school, the Collegium Zaporizhzhia Sich, the participants are too vulnerable to Russian attacks. The new structure is designed to withstand a conventional and nuclear attack.
“Only schools with air shelters have the right to work,” she says Independent. “I want to believe that war will end soon, but for now it is the future of schools in Ukraine.”
Yerashova says that her students can continue the lessons in the “real” environment, and that are important, one more time will be able to interfere and hang out with other young people.
Half students, aged six to 18 will learn in the morning in the morning, and the other 500 in the afternoon. In case of attack, 1,500 people can be sure to gather on a building that still smells fresh color.
-Head-teacher-Valentyna-Yerashova-(l)-with-MP-Oleksandr-Vasiuk-at-the-new-underground-school-in-Za.jpeg)
“Even after this phase of the war, Russia will always be there and there can always be a threat. And here you can always use this space wisely – for school, for all.
“We are a bit optimistic, we want to believe that it will definitely come well. We have to believe, hopefully.
“Despite terror, the Russians try to inflict Zaporizhzhi, collect strength here, the strength in our country and strength is now education.”
With increased attacks on the city, russian forces are cheering towards Zaporizhzhija, because they try to circumvent the cover in the neighboring Donetsk region, in which in Ukraine military command, it was replaced by the hardest fight along 600 miles line.
Moscow is desperate to catch him for more than a year. But they faced fierce Ukrainian resistance and lost thousands of troops per week. Now I can try to wrap the coverage, not attacking my head, and some battles are only 20 miles from Zaporizhzhi.
Were captured by the Zaporizhzhi nuclear power plant, which would raise the catastrophe that created radioactive pollution or even a bullet, in his country, in his country in 1986. year, in his country, the greatest civilian nuclear in the world of disaster.
MP for Zaporizhi, Oleksandr Vasiuk, says: “If the plant is damaged due to shelling or military actions, there could be a radioactive leakage, which leads to mass contamination in Ukraine and neighboring countries.
“Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is located on the River Dnipro, key water for Ukraine and several neighboring countries. The radiation of this river could affect not only Ukraine, but also Russia, Belarus, Moldova and other European countries.”
The Russians forced Ukrainian scientists and engineers to continue to manage the plant. Moscow eventually allowed the UN and the International Atomic Energy Competent Control to review the plants, and its six reactors are closed.
But Moscow ignored the objections of international experts to leave all military forces to reduce disaster risk, and the potential for disasters remains.
Russians occasionally claim that Ukrainian grenades or drones hit nearby. Ukrainians deny these allegations and say that the Russians cause explosions for themselves to keep the covenant level threats high.
Fedorov says Independent: “Of course we know that no one can predict what the Russians do and this is a great threat. We understand that when you have complete control [of the nuclear facility] And when you want to kill as many citizens as possible, because Putin tried to do these last three years, we know that this dangerous situation is growing every day, then no one knows what we can expect. “
Helping war efforts is the most important task, but for Fedor’s retention of the city as close to normalcy is another key priority.
He says the city’s population is between 750-800,000, just like a pre-war figure. “But the composition has changed because today every fifth resident of the Zaporizhzhia is an internally displaced person [IDPs or Ukrainian refugees] As the city became the center of evacuation from full invasion. “
Fedorov says that the longer war continues less those who fled abroad is likely to return to Ukraine. He says that people are long to return to their jets, but that’s not enough “because the inhabitants will not return to the desert.”
Instead of waiting until the conflict is done, he believes that he rebuild parts of the city that are now destroyed by Russian attacks is crucial to encourage people back. It is proud to be a quarter of 1,800 buildings damaged by Russians already renovated.
But he is skeptical in terms of looking for peace, despite the conversation on the recircciliation by negotiated by the American President Donald Trump, and says that Ukraine must be prepared for a long draw.
Vasiuk says: “Our country and every Ukrainian deserves only peace and I am sure the international coalition will help achieve this. The most important thing, it must be peace that guarantees Ukrainian sovereignty, territorial integrity and security.
He says that Zaporizhzhi has become one of the critical strategic centers in Ukraine – a hub for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons with housing, food and medical than.
It is also an important military bastion whose “successful defense is key to the stability of insulting southern regions and plays a decisive role in economic and energy stability in the country.”
During three days Independent Visited by Zaporizhzhi, periodically sounds air raids. Hours after this publication talked to Fedorov and Vasiuk, Russian ballistic missiles hit the goals causing a huge flame that ignited the night sky. Dozens of firefighters fought on the flame in the industrial place and the ambulances were transported from nearby civilian residences.
When the Ukrainian antebrated defense opened on the wave of Russian “killer”, one police officer tells me, “We just ordered from here and find the shelter. Please do the same.”
At 4am, the hotel is Sway because more explosions rocked the same area of town hit some six hours earlier. Fedorov says one man was killed, and 16 others, including a two-month-old baby, were injured. The attack was a “double touch”: designed to kill the first responsibilities and still deal with the initial flame.
As the curfew ends at 5 in the morning, people and turnover go to streets in a prk effort to continue “normalcy”.
For Vasiuk is simple: “I was born and grew up in Zaporizhzhi. This is not just a city. It is the heart that still beats even in the war.”