Students from government-controlled Mayorske go to school in ‘DPR’ – media

Twelve out of seventeen children of school age who reside in the town of Mayorsk, controlled by the Ukrainian army, started the school year in a high school of Mykytivka village, controlled by militants of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic.”

This is stated in the article, published in the Ukrayinska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth) online newspaper.

The parents of only five students agreed to send their children to school in the town of Bakhmut, controlled by Ukraine.

One of the reasons for the reluctance of parents to send children to Ukrainian schools is a distance of 3 km to the school in Mykytivka. The distance to Bakhmut is 9 km. Children themselves said categorically to the newspaper’s correspondent that they had got used to their school and friends and did not want to change anything.

Children always take a birth certificate with them and say they go to school at the roadblocks checkpoints.

A school bus is offered to children on both sides. If going to Mykytivka, children have to cross the roadblocks of the Ukrainian army and of the militants every day; if going to Bakhmut – the entry-exit checkpoint “Zaitseve”.

The mother of a first-grade student, who sends her child to Ukrainian school, explained that it is safer to cross the checkpoint rather than roadblocks on the front lines.

As UP learnt from Nadia Oksenchuk, the head of the education department at the Donetsk Regional Military–Civil Administration, another four children from Zhovanka and two children from Bakhmutka agreed to go to school in Bakhmut.  Zhovanka and Bakhmutka are residential districts of Zaitseve village, occupied by the militants.

The education department at the Donetsk Regional Military–Civil Administration undertakes to ensure transfer of children to Bakhmut.