Hard-hitting testimonies of life in Ukraine heard at independence day event

Richard Youle – Local democracy reporter

A teacher in Ukraine has described how her school has to operate in two shifts because the basement where children go when air raid warnings sound only holds half the pupils.

She said on certain days children ended up spending almost all the school day underground.

The testimony of the woman, named Lyudmyla, was shown in a video at a Ukraine Independence Day event in Swansea.

She said she worked at the school before the war and that a practice drill had been organised for what turned out to be just days before Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022.

“Back then the children treated it like a game,” said Lyudmyla. “They enjoyed it because it was unusual. They had never been to that basement before. A week later the war began.

“Now the school operates in two shifts because only a certain number of children can fit into that basement, so they have to be divided.”

Photos

The video showed a school in a built-up area and pupils walking in an orderly fashion during an air raid alert.

Photos were shown of a long, narrow basement with children sat on chairs lined up on either side of it. The school was said to have more than 1,300 pupils.

“As soon as an air raid sounds, they leave everything and go down to the basement,” said Lyudmyla. “There they stay for at least half an hour – sometimes two or three hours.

“Quite often alarms are repeated at intervals of half an hour or an hour. This makes it very challenging to move such a large number of children quickly, then bring them back, and repeat this several times a day.

“Sometimes children spent almost the entire school day in the basement. This is what schooling in Ukraine looks like today.”

Drones

A woman called Kateryna said in the video she’d recently returned from a visit to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.

She said by day it felt like everything was normal.
“People go to work, someone rushes with a coffee, children laugh in the playground running barefoot in the grass,” she said.

But then night came, she said, and “real hell begins” as drones, missiles and explosions caused casualties and destruction despite the efforts of air defence personnnel.

“And that’s not all, because there is what we see and there is what we don’t see of this war,” said Kateryna. “Nervous system illnesses, people who simply don’t wake up in the morning, sudden heart attacks. Death that comes not from debris or explosions but from constant stress.

“Ukrainians live in two different worlds at the same time, sadly.”

The colourful independence day event at the former Crane’s music shop in Swansea city centre on August 23 featured dancing, music, and sales of clothing, crafts and food. It was attended by Ukrainians – many displaced by the conflict – plus cadets and well-wishers including Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart.

The event was organised by a group called Sunflowers Wales, which buys and sends medical supplies to Ukrainian soldiers, and raised £1,430. Ukraine became independent from the former Soviet Union in 1991.

A Sunflowers Wales spokesman described the gathering as heartfelt and truly communal. He thanked the “tireless volunteers”, and added: “We’re deeply grateful for the support.”