KHARKIV, Dec 7 — New Year’s illumination in Kharkiv was switched a day ago on St. Nicholas Day. Christmas lights, clocks and decoration beads appeared at several metro stations. Gwara took a ride on the Kharkiv subway to show us what the newly decorated stations look like.
This year, as in 2022, the Kharkiv authorities cancelled the New Year’s Eve celebrations on Svobody Square due to the Russian full-scale invasion. The Christmas tree was set up underground for the second time at the Universytet metro station.
According to Kharkiv Metro spokesman Oleksiy Bitner, no additional celebrations are planned.
Education underground in Kharkiv
Starting from September 4, 2023, education for schoolchildren was launched at five metro stations in Kharkiv. This was due to the inability to ensure safety from Russian missile strikes in the city’s schools.
Read the story: Education at the Metro. How children in Kharkiv celebrated Knowledge Day underground.
The existing shelters in Kharkiv schools do not meet state building standards and cannot guarantee survival if a missile hits the building.
The flying time of an S300 ballistic missile from the border in the Belgorod region is 40–50 seconds, and even if the school has certified shelters, it is impossible to get all the children into the bomb shelter during this short time.
The air raid alarm in Kharkiv is often activated after a missile attack. This happens because the warning system does not have time to respond to rapid Russian ballistic missile attacks.
More from Gwara
New mandatory evacuation may be announced in Kharkiv Oblast. The decision to expand the forced evacuation zone in Kharkiv Oblast has not yet been approved. Presently, 243 children live in the Kupiansk community, which may potentially be evacuated.
Case of changing the name and surname of a Ukrainian child in Russia recorded for the first time. The head of a Russian party, Sergei Mironov, and his wife, Inna Varlamova, “adopted” a child who had been taken from Ukraine.
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