UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Sep 20 — The city’s first underground school wasn’t “significantly” damaged during the Russian air attack on Kharkiv that Moscow launched overnight on September 19, said Ihor Terekhov, Kharkiv mayor, on Ukraine’s TV. 

Russia frequently attacks Kharkiv with various kinds of airstrikes because of its proximity to the border and frontline. To provide safe online education for children, local authorities and humanitarian organizations built several underground schools throughout the city. 

“The underground school withstood this challenge. But the buildings of the above-ground school and kindergarten that were close to the explosion’s epicenter have been damaged. Their windows were blown out, and there was other damage [to them,]” Ihor Terekhov said. 

The school was damaged after Russians launched an air attack on Kharkiv, hitting three districts of the city with S-300 missiles and FAB-250 glide bombs. In the Industrialnyi district, where the underground school is located, a glide bomb also damaged a nine-story residential apartment building. 

As for our underground school, everything is more or less good there, Terekhov said. “It’s a very successful experience, and now we’re building another three facilities like that so that children have an opportunity to study offline.” 

Terekhov also reported that the classes in offline school had been canceled until Money. He explained that this measure was necessary for the city’s municipal services to clean up glass and other debris that remained near the school after the Russian bombardment. 

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