In the class above, schoolbags lie abandoned, remnants of the last day of classes before the start of the Russian invasion of the country launched on February 24.

The shelter, formerly a changing room, has already been tested by the war: 60 people lived there in the first weeks of the conflict. Today, it can accommodate 600 in its 300 square meters.

“As soon as a siren goes off, our teams will immediately bring the children down to the basement whatever the activity at the time. As far as possible, it will be maintained there”, explains to AFP Mr. Aliokhine, the director.

Despite these austere conditions, he hopes to find at least a third of his 460 students aged six to sixteen on Thursday, the day of the new school year.

– Learning to adapt –

In 2021, Ukraine had 4.2 million students. But more than 2 million children have fled abroad since the start of the war and 3 million are displaced inside the country, according to Unicef.

In kyiv, now far from the front, 132,000 children are expected in classes on September 1, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

In the private school of Mykhaïlo Aliokhine, whose name is not revealed for security reasons, the employees are preparing for two scenarios for the start of the school year.

The first, “on the surface”, provides courses ten meters from the entrance to the shelter.

The second, “underground”, will be held underground in the event of an anti-aircraft alert, as is the case every day.

“I do not exclude that the enemy, who loves symbolic dates, could take advantage” of the start of the school year to attack, confides the 26-year-old director.

Bombings or not, the teachers are going to organize a party in the shelter at the start of the school year to “show the children that this is a safe place where they will most certainly spend a lot of time this year”.

The shelter is supplied with water and food for 48 hours. A team of doctors and psychologists will also be permanently available.

“I never imagined this, but here we are… the new reality,” says Mr Aliokhin.

– “Live life to the fullest” –

Nearly half of the approximately 23,000 Ukrainian schools – of which 2,135 were damaged by the war – have equipped shelters and will therefore be able to start the school year face-to-face, according to the Ministry of Education.

For the others, as for all those located near the front, the teaching will take place thanks to the Internet.

The sad reality of the war does not seem to have affected the enthusiasm for the start of the school year, an important day in Ukraine.

“I live next to my school, I will be safer there because we will be brought down to the shelter in an organized way”, assures Polina, a 16-year-old teenager, surrounded by her friends at a café terrace.

“We just want to live our life to the full after two years of Covid and six months of war. We are not afraid, we have already endured enough,” she continues, before adding: “Our generation has decided to live in the present moment”.

However, it is the parents who are faced with this difficult choice.

According to Serguiï Gorbachov, government official for Education, the majority of parents will refuse that their children study on the spot, because of the risks.

Yulia Chatravenko-Sokolovitch, mum to seven-year-old Myroslava, decided her daughter would be in class on Thursday.

“Of course, we are all scared but I cannot deprive my child of socialization,” she explains, adding, “I trust the Ukrainian army which defends us.”

“The fact that we are returning to a more or less normal life gives me hope,” she admits.