UKRAINIAN children were seen gathering in underground classrooms as they kept safe from Vladimir Putin’s devastating offensive in Kharkiv.
Schools remained open despite the renewed Russian offensive in the devastated city, while children were forced into bomb-proof bunkers by brave teachers.
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This comes as Russian snipers target above ground anyone trying to flee to safety.
Thousands of schoolchildren, aged six to 16, are receiving classes in five converted metro stations, far from Putin’s horrific bombings.
Some of the old stations, where locals fled at the start of the brutal war in Ukraine, even have miniature playgrounds inside.
The Sun visited one of the renovated schools earlier this year and spoke to teacher Olenna Volodomyr, who said: “It’s strange to have clandestine classes, but it’s the only way to do face-to-face classes.
“It’s much better for the children.
“Children feel safe here, we feel safe here and parents feel better because they know their children are safe.”
While children remain safe underground, thousands of adults have been trying to escape the fighting altogether since the second bloody attack on Kharkiv was launched on Friday.
Military police officer Vlad Yefarov was trying to rescue a pensioner trapped in the northeastern border town of Vovchansk when Russian snipers shot at him.
Vlad said The telegraph: “We were passing the old shoemaker’s factory when a Russian sniper’s bullet hit the windshield right in front of me.
“We tried to turn around, but as we did so, a Russian machine gunner opened fire on us and the gunman fired another bullet into my driver’s window.”
This is just one horrific example of Russian fighters intimidating Ukrainian civilians and not allowing them to leave areas, like Kharkiv, where fighting has brutally intensified.
It was also revealed earlier today that Russian forces managed to conquer kilometers of terrain in the shock offensive.
Putin’s troops claimed to have captured five villages this morning.
They later said four more had been taken in the past few hours, bringing the total to nine.
Ukraine’s military admitted that Moscow scored some “tactical successes” around the northeastern city, near the border with Russia, over the weekend.
Russian troops marched between three and eight kilometers in a multi-pronged attack along more than 32 kilometers of the front line.
Close to 40,000 troops and 500 tanks were massed along the border ahead of the large-scale ground assault that Kiev had feared would come for weeks.
Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said: “The enemy is trying to deliberately widen the front line, attacking in small groups but in new directions.”
Last night, fighting took place on the outskirts of bombed-out Vovchansk and neighboring Lyptsi, which is just a few kilometers south of the Russian-Ukrainian border.
Nearly 6,000 civilians have fled Vovchansk, although 300 remain, local officials said yesterday.
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Despite Putin’s relative success in gaining ground, he reportedly suffered record losses, with 1,740 dead in a single day of war.
Russian troops are continually launched into meat-grinder attacks in northeastern Ukraine as part of the brutal new ground offensive.
Ukrainian soldiers said the Kremlin is using the tried-and-true Russian tactic of launching human wave attacks – sending a disproportionate amount of infantry units to deplete Ukrainian troops and firepower.
Dramatic footage also showed Ukraine decimating a column of five tanks as they attempted to advance further into the Kharkiv region.
Analysts say the Russian attack was designed to exploit ammunition shortages before promised Western arms shipments could reach the front line.
Russia first stepped up attacks on Kharkiv in March, targeting energy infrastructure and settlements with sustained airstrikes in what analysts predicted were preparations for a new offensive.
Its mayor warned the West that it risked being turned into a “second Aleppo” – the Syrian city that heavy Russian bombing helped decimate a decade ago.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukrainian troops had been carrying out counterattacks on border villages.
“Disrupting Russian offensive plans is now our number one task,” he said.
Troops must “return the initiative to Ukraine,” the president insisted, again urging allies to speed up arms deliveries.
The key moment in the conflict comes when Putin fires his longtime defense minister and appoints a tech geek with zero military experience.
Civilian Andrei Belousov, 65, will now take the reins of Russia’s war in Ukraine, while the Kremlin ruler carries out a major cabinet reshuffle.
The Institute for the Study War said the high-level reshuffle signals Putin is taking significant action. steps to prepare for a protracted war in Ukraine and a possible future confrontation with NATO.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
