'Maximum' number Ukrainian schools should begin school year offline, Zelensky says

Ahead of the planned start of the school year on September 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky urged on August 30 that "the maximum number of schools should be opened offline," emphasizing the importance of in-person learning

Zelensky stated that ensuring the availability of shelters and the readiness of energy systems to face current challenges is crucial

Ukraine traditionally marks the return to school on September 1, known as Knowledge Day, but since Russia's full-scale invasion, many children have had to study virtually due to the threat of Russian attacks

The war has reportedly destroyed or damaged one in seven schools in Ukraine and forced 1.6 million schoolchildren out of education

Approximately 900,000 Ukrainian children are studying remotely, as only schools equipped with bomb shelters are allowed to operate offline

According to the UN, only one-third of Ukrainian children are able to attend school in person, another third learn online, and the rest follow a hybrid approach due to the ongoing threat of attacks

Ukrainian officials have been preparing for the start of the year and trying to return to normalcy for some children by heavily investing in building school shelters for civilians to hide in during attacks

In Mykolaiv, shelters were set up in 23 out of 40 schools where offline education is planned to resume, according to the Mykolaiv city council

In Zaporizhzhia, local authorities plan to open some of the six underground schools in the city and surrounding region by late October, as stated by Zaporizhzhia Oblast Governor Ivan Fedorov on August 11

Deputy Education Minister Yevhen Kudriavets mentioned in February that over 3,500 educational institutions had been damaged due to the Russian full-scale invasion, with nearly 400 of them almost destroyed

On August 30, a Russian attack on a building in Kharkiv tragically killed a 14-year-old girl and injured at least 18 other children; a total of seven people were killed and 77 were injured in the attack

UPDATE : Russian attack on Kharkiv on August 30 killed 7 people, injured over 90

Russian forces attacked the city of Kharkiv on August 30 with UMPB D-30 munitions, killing at least seven people, including a child, and injuring 97 others, local authorities reported

The Russian strike hit a 12-story residential building in the city's Industrialnyi district, causing a fire and resulting in at least three deaths, according to Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov

Kharkiv's Nemyshlianskyi district also came under attack, killing a 14-year-old girl, as confirmed by Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov

There are 22 children among the injured, according to Ukraine's State Emergency Service

Russian forces also hit downtown Kharkiv and the city's Slobidskyi district, damaging a warehouse building and three houses, the governor said

Syniehubov mentioned that 20 of those injured are in serious or "extremely serious" condition

He added that there may still be people on the upper floors of the hit building, including at least one woman, with a risk that the building might collapse

Later in the evening, the body of a woman was recovered from the rubble, bringing the death toll of the attack to seven

In response to the attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky urged partners to allow Ukraine to strike military air bases on Russian soil using Western-supplied weapons

Zelensky emphasized the need for strong decisions from Ukraine's partners to stop the ongoing terror, stating that there is no rational reason to limit Ukraine's defense

Attacks against population centers in Kharkiv Oblast have intensified after Russian forces launched a new cross-border offensive in the northern part of the region in May

While Ukrainian troops have halted the Russian push, Russia continues to hold a handful of settlements just across the border.

White House rejects plan to send F-16 maintenance personnel to Ukraine

The White House has rejected a proposal from the U.S. military to send civilian contractors to Ukraine to maintain F-16s and other equipment, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal on August 31. Citing officials familiar with the matter, the WSJ said the U.S. intelligence community deemed the plan too risky, expressing concerns that Russia might target American contractors in Ukraine. While the possibility of deploying contractors hasn't been completely ruled out for the future, the Biden administration hopes that European countries will take on partial or full responsibility for maintaining Ukraine's recently-delivered F-16 fighter jets.

On the same day, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced at the Globsec conference in Prague that the F-16 jets donated by Denmark are "working in Ukraine." In response to a question from the Kyiv Independent, Frederiksen expressed pride that the aircraft were in use, noting that she had wanted to send them "from the beginning of the war." She acknowledged that there had been extensive debate among Ukraine's Western allies about whether to provide Kyiv with F-16s but said Ukrainian pilots were "doing a good job" with the jets. However, she also mentioned that one of the Ukrainian pilots had recently been lost.

On August 29, Ukraine's General Staff confirmed that an F-16 operated by pilot Oleksii Mes, which had been recently delivered to Ukraine, crashed during a mass Russian drone and missile attack on August 26. Mes was killed in the crash. Ukraine received its first F-16s at the beginning of August, about a year after its allies formed the fighter jet coalition at the NATO summit in Vilnius to support Kyiv with training and aircraft. The initial batch was reportedly supplied by the Netherlands, but it remains unclear whether these reports were correct or if further deliveries have taken place since then.