On January 25, representatives of the European Union visited the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to agree on further support for Ukraine in building shelters for educational institutions.
The event gathered together: Katarina Mathernova, Ambassador of the European Union to Ukraine, Gabrielius Landsbergis, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, Oksen Lisovyi, Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, and Rasa Surauciene, Deputy Director of the Central Project Management Agency, Lithuania (CPMA).
The European Commission will allocate EUR 15 million for the construction of shelters near schools in Ukraine, and Lithuania will provide half a million euros for the programme. This agreement was signed between the EC Delegation to Ukraine and the Lithuanian Central Project Management Agency (CPMA), which will implement the project. At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Science, together with its partners and local administrations, is helping to identify priority institutions for which shelters will be built.
The new shelters will be located underground, near schools, and will be equipped with radiation protection. They will accommodate up to 1,000 people and cover an area of approximately 2,000 square metres. The shelters will have a dual purpose: not only will they protect people from danger, but they will also be equipped as spaces where children can continue their classes during alarms and hold extracurricular activities.
Under the programme, the shelters will be built in the regions of Ukraine where the security situation is most difficult – Chernihiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and Odesa. At least 5 shelters are planned to be built in these frontline regions.
Together with the Lithuanian agency CPMA, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has selected the surviving Ukrainian schools with the largest number of students. These educational institutions do not have minimal basement shelters or nearby metro stations, and education is conducted only distantly. Thanks to the new shelters, approximately 5,000 students from these schools will have a chance to return to offline learning in the next year and a half. (Government portal/Business World Magazine)