ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine—To be a parent in the Ukrainian front-line city of Zaporizhzhia means weighing your child’s life against the Russian weapons within striking distance. Most rain death in an instant: the drones, the ballistic missiles, the glide bombs, the artillery shells.
Children from Gymnasium No. 6 head to a basement set up with classrooms during an air alert in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on Sept. 3, 2024. The city is building a dozen subterranean schools designed to be radiation- and bomb-proof.
These twin dangers—bombs and radiation—shadow families in Zaporizhzhia. Most of the youngest residents of the city have never seen the inside of a classroom. Schools that had suspended in-person classes during the Covid-19 pandemic more than four years ago continued online classes after the war started in February 2022.
“Even classmates don’t recognize each other,” she said. “It’s the only safe way to have an education and not be on screens.”Within days of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Zaporizhzhia’s 300,000 residents found themselves on the front lines. Unlike larger Ukrainian cities, like Kyiv or Kharkiv, there is no subway system that could do double-duty as a bomb shelter and few schools had basements where students could more safely attend classes.
The nuclear plant needs electricity to keep crucial backups functioning, including water pumps that prevent meltdowns, radiation monitors and other essential safety systems. Russian forces seized control of Chornobyl in the first days of the invasion, only to be driven back by Ukrainian forces. In addition, the Zaporizhzhia region received a European Union donation of 5.5 million iodine pills, which help block the thyroid’s absorption of some radiation.
“Everybody understands that fortification and aid for the army, it’s priority No. 1,” said Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhzhia region. “But if we lose the new generation of our Ukrainians, for whom we fight?” Michael Dillon, a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who studies how people can survive nuclear fallout, said being underground improves survival by a factor of 10.
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