Lithuania to build six bomb shelter schools in Ukraine by end of year

Lithuania plans to build six underground schools in Mykolaiv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Chernihiv oblasts, and likely in Kharkiv Oblast by the end of the year.

Artūras Žarnovskis, Head of the Lithuanian Co-create Future in Ukraine programme, in an interview for Ukrinform, revealed the details of the big project in Mykolaiv Oblast and other regions, which are located close to the combat zone and constantly come under Russians fire.

"Special bomb shelter schools, suitable for wartime, will be built there. In peaceful times these shelters can be used as multi-purpose rooms: for sports, entertainment etc," he said.

He specified that the schools will be built in concrete locations in the six oblasts, with five of them in Mykolaiv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Chernihiv oblasts. The location of the sixth facility is still being chosen. It will most likely be Kharkiv Oblast.

"We’re starting to build large shelter schools in these regions. They will be constructed from scratch in places where there have sadly been no shelters. Among other things, safety conditions will provide for protection from radiation as well," Žarnovskis noted.

He assumed this construction could be finished as early as this year.

Žarnovskis stressed the importance of such projects since due to the full-scale Russian invasion and the COVID-19 pandemic there are "fourth grade students in some schools who have never been in school physically", despite  the importance of schools for children’s socialisation.

Recently Lithuania announced the supply of a batch of M577 armoured command and staff vehicles to Ukraine.

On 20 April Lithuania announced that it had supplied Ukraine with a light attack aircraft L-39ZA Albatros.

Earlier Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda expressed his concern that the Western countries were shifting the focus of attention from Ukraine.