You're reading: Waiting Out War: School’s lessons include how to dodge shelling

LUHANSKE, Ukraine – When the shelling starts, caregivers bring the children to the music room on the first floor. They turn on happy-sounding songs to distract from the terrifying din outside.

But the children of Little Star kindergarten in Luhanske understand clearly what these sounds mean, as they have lived with them since 2014, says Tetiana Dolidze, the kindergarten’s head.

“They can tell what kind of armored vehicle is moving, who is shooting, and from which side,” says Dolidze.

Luhanske, a small town of about 2,500 residents in Donetsk Oblast some 700 kilometers from Kyiv, has been on the war front since January 2015, when Ukrainian troops came under fierce attack in the nearby city of Debaltseve by Russian forces, including tanks from a Russian unit based in Ulan-Ude in Buryatia, a republic in the Russian Far East. Ukrainian forces withdrew from Debaltseve in late February, days after the Minsk II peace agreement that has never been implemented.

Since then, sporadic fighting has broken out frequently near Luhanske. In late December, when the Ukrainian military took over new positions near the town, nine soldiers were killed and 35 wounded in an operation known as the Battle of the Svitlodarsk Bulge.

The kindergarten, located practically on the battlefield, had some of its windows broken during shelling. Luckily, no children were injured because the fighting occurred overnight.

Signs of war

About a dozen Ukrainian soldiers were killed in Luhanske or near the town before the battle in December. Several local residents were killed by shells.

Natalia Ochko, a caregiver at the kindergarten, notes the war’s effect on the children she looks after. “They get more nervous, aggressive,” Ochko says. “We often play at puppet shows with them. It helps them to cope with the stress.”

Signs of war are visible all around: a bombed-out hospital is located across the street and there are two military checkpoints just a few hundred meters away.

But inside the kindergarten, it’s a children’s haven. A big smiling snowman stands next to a Christmas tree in the entrance hall. A huge stuffed panda bear sits on a sofa. The walls have children’s drawings and funny pictures from the internet.

“Good day!” children from a group of four- to six-year-olds bellow at visiting journalists. After finishing their lunch, they pick up their chairs and march with them to a bright pink bedroom, where they will take an afternoon nap.

Their playroom includes a Ukrainian corner, which has a big sign reading “Ukraine is a united country,” with traditional Ukrainian dolls and portraits of Ukrainian poets underneath.

Children have lunch in Little Star kindergarten, located in the frontline Donetsk Oblast town of Luhanske, 731 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.

Children have lunch in Little Star kindergarten, located in the frontline Donetsk Oblast town of Luhanske, 731 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. (Anastasia Vlasova)

Shell damage

In January 2015 the kindergarten was heavily damaged by shelling and stopped working. Then the soldiers of 30th brigade lived there, from February to May 2015.

When they left, local residents repaired the building, with help from the International Committee of the Red Cross and soldiers from the 95th brigade. The People in Need humanitarian group stocked the kindergarten with new toys, and it re-opened in June 2015.

The kindergarten serves about 50 children, two-thirds of the pre-war number.

Militarized area

The half-deserted town of Luhanske is a dangerous place. One child was killed by shelling in 2015 and another schoolboy had his hand blown off after he found an explosive. Some kindergarteners have started stammering because of the stress.

The town still remains a highly militarized area, closed to strangers. Its residents try not to go out after sunset. They go to the center mostly for shopping or for humanitarian aid, which they call “akhmetovka” after the charity foundation of Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest billionaire oligarch, which regularly delivers food packages to locals.

The soldiers also shop or go to a bar in the center, but don’t stay long or talk much to the locals.

Forgetting war

Some residents have decided to leave: the town has been without water for three months. After an employee of the local pumping station quit, nobody wanted to replace him. So now, every Wednesday, the People in Need organization brings free drinking water.

Dolidze, the kindergarten’s head, says they used to regularly drill the children on how to hide from bombs, how to behave in a bomb shelter and how to avoid mines. But now, after nearly three years of war, caregivers try to change the subject.

“We sing, we dance, we play with them,” Dolidze says. “We try not to talk about the war at all.”