As the new academic year began, children in the Ukrainian village of Bobryk returned to lessons held underground — a stark reminder of a war with no end in sight. The local school, once forced to move classes to a basement during 20-hour air raid alarms, has transformed the damp storage space into classrooms with lighting, ventilation, and fresh flooring.

On the first day, pupils wore traditional embroidered shirts and brought flowers for their teachers, clinging to rituals of normalcy even as drones and explosions echo overhead. “This generation cannot be lost,” said principal Oleksii Korenivskyi. “Education is their future, and we must fight for it.”

For Bobryk’s 100 remaining students, learning without windows or doors underground has become routine. Childhood still flickers through — summer bike rides, helping parents — shadowed by the memory of intercepted drones scattering fragments nearby. In a village of just 2,000, each family’s departure is keenly felt, but for those who stay, classrooms beneath the earth have become a symbol of both survival and defiance.