Ukraine to build six shelters at schools with funds from EU and Lithuania

With the support of the European Union and Lithuania, Ukraine will be able to create six school shelters in different regions of the country to continue the educational process there.

This was reported by Ukrinform with reference to the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT.

On Thursday, the EU Delegation to Ukraine and the Lithuanian Central Project Management Agency signed an agreement to implement this initiative. "At the expense of the EU and Lithuania, we will build six shelters in six schools and return them to the educational process. This is about 6,000 children," Ukrainian Education Minister Oksen Lisovyi told Lithuanian journalists in Kyiv.

The shelters will be set up in Chernihiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Odesa regions to protect children from Russian shelling. All these underground shelters near schools will also have radiation protection. The 2,000-square-meter shelters are expected to accommodate 1,000 people.

The agreement was signed during the visit of Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis to Kyiv. "There should be no bomb shelters in schools because children should never be a target. Attacks on children are terrorism. Therefore, I believe that bomb shelters are a temporary shelter until Ukraine wins. Victory will come," Landsbergis said.

Read also: EU, Lithuania provide EUR 15.5M for school shelters in Ukraine

At the same time, he emphasized that the West should understand the importance of military support and funding for civilian protection for Ukraine.

As reported, last week the Lithuanian government also allocated funds to create a radiation shelter in a kindergarten in Irpin. Earlier, Lithuania built a mobile housing camp in Borodyanka, contributed to the modernization of the Ukrainian power grid, school reconstruction, and other projects.