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Air-raid alerts and attacks on schools: the devastating face of education in Ukraine
Ukraine has sustained almost 2,000 attacks on education since the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, with some 270 this year alone, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.
Since the start of the school year, “children have experienced an average of 34 hours of air-raid alarms during school time, equivalent to more than 13 per cent of scheduled learning” up to 20 October, with some regions impacted by 60-plus hours of alerts, said UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires.
He noted that air-raid alarms sounded on nearly two-thirds of school days in September and October 2026, compared with just over one-third in the same period in 2025. In addition, the average duration of alarms during school hours almost doubled from September 2025 to September 2026.
In Kyiv, alarms increased from 12 in September 2025 to 71 in September 2026. In Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad and Kharkiv regions, children have experienced more than 60 hours of school-time alarms, this is equivalent to approximately one quarter of scheduled learning hours, affecting more than 560,000 children.
“I’ve just returned to in-person school; however, we still spend most of our school day in a shelter because of air raids,” said 15-year-old Katia from the Mykolaiv region, whose testimony Mr. Pires shared.
He reiterated the visible mental health toll that the war continues to have on all Ukrainian children, recalling his visit a month ago where he talked to youngsters who have to learn underground “because it’s not safe for them to be above ground”.
Despite the relative safety afforded by the classroom bunkers, “even then, they are dealing with air raid alarms all the time (and) you could feel that some of them, especially the older ones, expressed a lot of anxiety and shared with us their inability to fully concentrate and kind of leave what’s happening above ground.”
Echoing those concerns, the head of the UN global fund Education Cannot Wait, Maysa Jabout, explained that the “huge impact” of war everywhere on children has forced it to prioritise funding for psychosocial counselling, “carving away … “essential money that we need for teaching and learning in order to support children’s ability to cope with learning in very difficult circumstances”.
ends
Story: Ukraine school attacks – UNICEF
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
Duration: 2’41”
DATELINE: 3 November 2026 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND & Ukraine various locations in 2026
Speakers:
- Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF
- Maysa Jalbout, Director, Education Cannot Wait
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide shot, UN flag alley, UN Geneva.
- Wide, podium speakers in Press Room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF: “In addition to air-raids, the UN has verified almost 2,000 attacks on educational facilities across Ukraine, including some 270 in 2026 alone. That’s 270 this year alone.”
- Medium-wide, Press Room TV screens, podium .
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF: “Since the start of the 2026–2027 school year, children have experienced an average of 34 hours of air-raid alarms during school time, equivalent to more than 13 per cent of scheduled learning, according to data covering the period up to 20 October.”
- Wide, Press Room TV screens, journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF: “Air-raid alarms have occurred on nearly two-thirds of school days in the period of September and October 2026, compared with around one-third in the equal period of 2025. The average duration of alarms during school hours has almost doubled from September 2025 to September 2026.”
- Wide, Press Room TV screens, journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF: “When I was there about a month ago, talking to children who have been learning underground through school shelters because it’s not safe for them to be above ground, and even then, they are dealing with air raid alarms all the time, you could feel that some of them, especially the older ones, expressed a lot of anxiety and shared with us their kind of ability - inability - to fully concentrate and kind of leave what’s happening above ground.”
- Wide, podium speakers in Press Room, TV screens, journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Maysa Jalbout, Director, Education Cannot Wait: “These wars have a huge impact on children and their ability to learn, to the point where we at Education Cannot Wait and all of our partners are having to prioritise funding for psychosocial counselling, carving away money that we – essential money – that we need for teaching and learning in order to support or the children’s ability to cope with learning in very difficult circumstances.”
- Medium-wide, journalists.
- Medium, journalist.
- Medium, journalist.
- Wide, smoking building in Ukraine after an attack, please credit UNICEF.
- Medium fire inside a building in Ukraine after an attack, please credit UNICEF.
- Wide, apartment block after an attack with cranes and workers standing in destroyed apartments. Please credit UNICEF.
- Medium, residents sitting on ground looking at devastated apartment block and firefighters. Please credit UNICEF.
- Wide, pan, smoke rising from apartment block. Please credit UNICEF.
- Wide, devastated façade of apartment block, boarded up. Please credit UNICEF.
- Medium, residents sitting on ground looking at devastated apartment block and firefighters. Please credit UNICEF.
- Medium, young girl looking at camera amid wreckage of an attack. Please credit UNICEF.
- Wide, a family walks in a road past destroyed housing. Please credit UNICEF.
- Medium, a young girl in the arms of her mother, in front of a hearth. Please credit UNICEF.
- Wide, a mother holds her baby in a waiting room. Please credit UNICEF.
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