Liberation is the light: how children from the war zone return to school
More than 1.1 thousand educational institutions will open on September 1 in the DPR, the children's Ombudsman of the republic Taisiya Chernyavskaya told Izvestia. A special situation is in the liberated settlements. For example, in Selidovo, Kurakhovo and Kurakhovka, as last year, it is planned to organize distance learning. There is no such possibility in the Red Army area yet. Meanwhile, evacuees, including schoolchildren, continue to arrive from the battle zone. They will have to undergo psychological rehabilitation and catch up on the curriculum. A special correspondent of Izvestia met with children and their parents who managed to get out of Konstantinovka and Dimitrov, and learned what they had to go through, how they were settling into a new place and preparing for school.
Isolated and bombed
These two stories are similar in both the drama of the events and the denouement. They are also united by the fact that both families from different cities sought to reach the Russian side.
The couple Yulia, Vladislav and their nine—year-old daughter Sonya are from Konstantinovka. Sofia studied the first grade remotely at a Ukrainian school. I had to spend the next year in the basement. Today she is preparing to go to the second grade in Donetsk. Offline.
Yulia, Vladislav and their daughter Sonya in Donetsk
However, for now, the training will be individual: Sonya will study the main subjects one—on-one with a teacher, and music, drawing and needlework with the class.
As her mother explains, the girl is not yet ready to fully immerse herself in school life. Firstly, at the age of two, she suffered from a serious illness, the consequences of which require, in particular, classes with a speech therapist. Secondly, the months spent in isolation and under bombardment had an impact. According to Yulia, her daughter also needs classes with a psychologist. How much the experience affected the child's psyche is still anyone's guess.
Fortunately, my mother explains, they met with a truly friendly attitude from others in the DPR. From the fighters who took them out, to the Commissioner for Children's Rights, who organized a trip to Yeysk to the sea (with a circus, dolphinarium, communication with peers), and the school principal, who accepted her daughter into the class without delay, which softened the transition from one environment to another, helped to tune in an optimistic mood.
On September 1, nine-year-old Sonya entered the second grade of a Donetsk school
Recently, the parents received Russian passports. Relatives helped with the housing — they provided the family with a one-room apartment. Job search is on the agenda.
Special rescue operation
According to Yulia and Vladislav, they decided not to leave Konstantinovka and wait for the arrival of the Russian military.
— Of course, we imagined everything differently, — says Julia. — We thought the Ukrainian Armed Forces would retreat, ours would enter. In fact, everything turned out to be much more complicated ...
They began to prepare for the period of timelessness thoroughly. They drilled a well on the site of their house. We bought two generators. We've stocked up on gasoline and groceries. We have equipped a basement for long-term living.
Vladislav's mother moved in with them. In September 2025, water, electricity, and gas disappeared in the city. Full-scale military operations began.
Over the next 10 months, at least a hundred drones and shells flew into their yard. One of them, hanging low, was attacked by the pet dog Zeus, who was torn to pieces.
In May 2026, Vlad and Yulia, noticing the Russian Mavik observation aircraft flying back and forth every day, made two posters - "A family with a child" and "A family lives!", and when they noticed the drone again, they went out with them.
"He was flying, and then, when he saw us, he stopped and hovered,— the woman recalls. — The next day, another one arrived and dropped off a package for us. There were groceries and a walkie-talkie with instructions for use. We got in touch. The first words we heard: "The Russian army welcomes you."
A letter from the Russian military with instructions on how to use a walkie-talkie
The guys informed us that they would be preparing a special operation to rescue us.
I had to wait two weeks for the exit — the situation in the sky did not allow. Every day, morning and evening, they contacted the military. "How was your night, how do you feel? How's the day?" asked the operations officer with the call sign Alaska. All these days, the fighters continued to drop parcels, including sweets for the girl. On June 14, they gave the go-ahead for the exit.
The journey itself took two more weeks: we had to wait out the danger, and spend the night in the positions of the stormtroopers.
It was released on July 1. They were brought to a temporary location in Gorlovka. There, they finally saw each other briefly and hugged the same Alaska who had led their rescue for a month.
Study comes first
Elena, Mikhail and their two children, nine—year-old Nastya and 14—year-old Andrey, are from Dimitrov. They evacuated at the end of 2025. They live in Donetsk, and their relatives also helped with the apartment. The father of the family, a former electrician at the mine, got a job as an asphalt mixer, and his mother worked as a dispatcher at one of the enterprises.
Elena, Mikhail and daughter Nastya from Dimitrov. Mila the cat also went through all the hardships with them and was evacuated to Donetsk.
The children are preparing for school: Nastya goes to the 3rd grade, Andrey to the 8th.
The senior has been excellent in almost all subjects over the past six months, except for Russian and the history of the Fatherland, with B's in them (since these subjects are not included in the Ukrainian curriculum). Andrey found full–time education only in the first or second grade, after the pandemic came, then HIS OWN. His parents were very worried about his socialization, but the teenager got used to the new school quite quickly.
He made a good friend, and they play ball together in the yard. Now Andrey wants to enroll in the section. Nastya is also doing well: she is studying for fours and fives, and she has a lot of friends in her new class.
Eighth grader Andrey. "Excellent" in almost all school subjects
"Studying has always been our first priority," Mom shares. — Even when I had to go to classes online during the outbreak of hostilities. I said, "It's all over, and you can move on!"
Hide and wait
Back in 2022, Lena and Mikhail set a clear goal — to wait for the Russian military.
"I've never hidden that I only want to come here," the woman says. — Moreover, I was born in Donetsk, this is my homeland.
By the summer of 2024, Dimitrov was empty. The shooting was already going on continuously. The family moved into Elena's mom's apartment. Then they moved into the next room, where there was autonomous heating. Gradually, they were the only ones left in their five-story building with six entrances. The children were not allowed outside: if they noticed, they would take them away!
Elena's mother is Olga. We were saved by the whole family
Then there were months of constant fire attacks. Life in the basement. Numerous hits into the house, and then into the underground shelter, where the grandmother was crushed, but she managed to get out. We moved to the basement of a neighboring house, where 23 victims of the fire were huddled in a concrete box, and we had to take turns sleeping.
On December 19, the Russian military visited them. On the 30th Lena, Mikhail, grandmother and two children were taken out of the city.
Under threat of raids, through the ruins. Nastya, wrapped in a blanket, was carried part of the way by one of the fighters on a sled. At the first transit point, they were fed fried potatoes — the first potatoes in six months! Here is such a festive gift. On the 31st, they were at the Military training center in Yasinovataya. We went to bed without waiting for the New Year.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
